Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of Candidate Genes Associated with Growth Performance and Meat Quality Traits in Tau Vang Chicken

Tau Vang, one of the locally-recognized chicken breeds in south Vietnam has been known for its quality meat satisfying Vietnamese customers, but its biological growth is slow. Recently, Marker Assisted Selection (MAS), which could be based on single nucleotide polymorphims (SNPs) of candidate genes to support selection of animals with important traits, has been developed and applied to a range of animal breeding. However, in Vietnam, MAS for local animal breeds has not been not applied yet. Therefore, in this study, SNPs in some genes such as IGFBP2, GH, Insulin, TSH-β, leptin, GHSR, GHR, and IGF1 were detected by using PCR-RFLP in a population of 648 Tau Vang broilers, which were raised in private cages in the duration of 5 to 13 weeks old. After that, all of the broilers were slaughtered to measure parameters of carcass, chemical compositions and quality of breast and thigh meat. A General Linear Model containing factors of line, sex, genotype, as well as interaction of line*genotype and of sex*genotype was statistically established to analyze genetic association of SNPs with observed traits. As a result, genotypic and allelic frequencies at some loci (i.e.: C352T of leptin, C3199T of GH, A565G of GHR) were not found in Hardy Weinberg equilibrium test. Many SNPs significantly associated with economic traits such as body weight, breast, thigh, body length; average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, breast depth, abdominal fat; dry matter, ether extract, crude protein, calcium, and ash concentration of meat; as well as pH, driploss, water holding capacity of meat after slaughtering were found (P≤0.05). These provided great evidence to design MAS in efforts of improving growth performance and meat quality in Tau Vang chicken as well as other local chicken breeds in Vietnam.