Elucidation of coat colour genetics in blue wildebeest

Autor: Riana van Deventer, Rouvay Roodt-Wilding, Clint Rhode, Munro Marx
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Mammalian Biology. 101:439-449
ISSN: 1618-1476
1616-5047
Popis: The golden wildebeest, a colour variant of the blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus taurinus), is one of the most common colour variant animals that South African game ranchers breed for. Based on pedigree records, the prevailing hypothesis is that the golden coat colour is an autosomal recessive trait. However, the genetic basis of the golden coat colour phenotype has not been investigated. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed with 14 624 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to identify putative candidate genes involved in blue wildebeest pigmentation. A total of 374 SNPs were significantly associated with coat colour (P value ≤ 0.001). Five of these SNPs mapped to four different Bos taurus orthologous genes that could be involved in pigmentation based on previous literature reports. An additional three SNPs with an association P value ≤ 0.05 mapped to well-known pigmentation genes and were also considered. Based on the reported biological function of the genes, the myosin VC (MYO5C), myosin VIIA (MYO7A), solute carrier family 6 member 3 (SLC6A3), solute carrier family 28 member 2 (SLC28A2), dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2), frizzled class receptor 4 (FZD4) and tyrosinase (TYR) genes are promising candidate genes that could contribute to coat colour determination in blue wildebeest. Based on the number of identified candidate genes, gene–gene interaction analysis, and their determined mode of inheritance, coat colour in blue wildebeest could rather be a quantitative threshold trait. This study provides a basis for further investigation on the genetic mechanisms of pigmentation in blue wildebeest.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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