title: Genome-wide scan for body composition in pigs reveals important role of imprinting.
abstract: The role of imprinting in body composition was investigated in an experimental cross between Chinese Meishan pigs and commercial Dutch pigs. A whole-genome scan revealed significant evidence for five quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting body composition, of which four were imprinted. Imprinting was tested with a statistical model that separated the expression of paternally and maternally inherited alleles. For back fat thickness, a paternally expressed QTL was found on Sus scrofa chromosome 2 (SSC2), and a Mendelian-expressed QTL was found on SSC7. In the same region of SSC7, a maternally expressed QTL affecting muscle depth was found. Chromosome 6 harbored a maternally expressed QTL on the short arm and a paternally expressed QTL on the long arm, both affecting intramuscular fat content. The individual QTL explained from 2% up to 10% of the phenotypic variance. The known homologies to human and mouse did not reveal positional candidate genes. This study demonstrates that testing for imprinting should become a standard procedure to unravel the genetic control of multifactorial traits.
authors.affiliation: Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: de Koning
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Rattink
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Harlizius
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: van Arendonk
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Brascamp
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Groenen
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000818:Animals; D001415:Back / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D002678:Chimera; D016678:Genome; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D005838:Genotype; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance; D009132:Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics*