Investigation of Candidate Regions Associated With Fat Deposition in Thin and Fat Tail Sheep Breeds

Abstract Text: The fat tail is a phenotype that divides domesticated sheep into two major groups. The objective of the present study was to refine the map location of candidate regions associated with fat deposition and to determine the nature of the selection occurring in these regions using XP-EHH approach. Zel (thin-tail) and Lori-Bakhtiari (fat-tail) breed samples were genotyped with a denser set of SNPs in the three candidate regions. Results enabled us to refine the critical intervals from 113kb, 201kb and 2,831kb to 30kb, 38kb and 1,077kb on chromosome 5, 7 and X respectively. Some genes associated with fat metabolisms like PPP2CA in Homo sapiens and EBP in Bos taurus have previously been reported in these regions on chromosome 5 and X respectively. Core haplotypes in these regions of interest support the hypothesis that the first domesticated sheep were thin-tailed and fat-tail animals were developed later. 

Keywords:

Candidate regions

Thin and Fat tail

XP-EHH