Russian scientists have found new candidate genes to increase the meat productivity of sheep

Modern genetic technologies are actively used in agriculture. Analysis of the genomes of different breeds allows you to identify genes and their variants that are associated with specific animal traits. These data can be used to select markers for selection of desired traits or candidate targets for genome editing, according to the Science in Siberia portal.

“Sheep breeding is one of the most important branches of agriculture. Currently, the most popular product of sheep breeding is precisely MEAT, although until recently, in sheep breeding, more attention was paid to traits related to the quality of wool. Unlike cattle, much less information is known about the loci and genes of sheep associated with various economically important traits,” said Alexander Sergeevich Zlobin, junior researcher at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

When filling the platform, the researchers encountered various difficulties. Chief among these was the lack of access to genome-wide data in published articles. Of the 46 publications analyzed, only one study provided access to genome-wide data in the required format. “Also, one of the problems was the lack of generally accepted standards for conducting genome-wide studies of sheep associations, each researcher chose his own standards and limitations,” said Alexander Zlobin.

As a result of the work done by scientists, the GWAS-MAP|ovi platform was filled with unified data that passed "quality control". Their analysis made it possible to discover new loci: 13 genes were identified for them, which can potentially regulate the signs of meat productivity.

Scientists have already applied the created platform to assess the breeding value of Russian sheep breeds. The data obtained were compared with real data on 94 animals - hybrids of the Romanov breed of sheep and argali - provided by colleagues from the Federal Research Center for Animal Husbandry - VIZH named after academician L.K. Ernst (Moscow) and confirmed the high predictive potential of the created platform.