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Genome-wide association study (GWAS) for growth rate and sexual maturation in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Early sexual maturation is a serious drawback for Atlantic salmon aquaculture as it retards growth, affecting flesh quality and increases production times. Both growth and sexual maturation are complex traits; however, selection has been accomplished since the beginning of Atlantic salmon selective breeding programs. 480 individuals from the Cermaq Canada broodstock program were genotyped using a 6.5K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. The GenABEL library in R allowed us to identify markers showing a significant association with growth, late maturation and grilsing. The most significant associations were found for late maturation on markers located in Ssa28, Ssa01 and Ssa21. Lower level of association was detected with growth on Ssa13 and with grilsing on Ssa02 and Ssa14. Candidate genes were found to be associated with these traits and some of them show a direct relationship with developmental processes, especially for those in association with sexual maturation.
Keywords:
Salmon, GWAS, SNP.
