title: Quantitative trait loci segregating in crosses between New Hampshire and White Leghorn chicken lines: IV. Growth performance.
abstract: Reciprocal crosses between the inbred lines New Hampshire (NHI) and White Leghorn (WL77) comprising 579 F2 individuals were used to map QTL for body weight and composition. Here, we examine the growth performance until 20 weeks of age. Linkage analysis provided evidence for highly significant QTL on GGA1, 2, 4, 10 and 27 which had specific effects on early or late growth. The highest QTL effects, accounting for 4.6-25.6% of the phenotypic F2 variance, were found on the distal region of GGA4 between 142 and 170 cM (F ≥ 13.68). The NHI QTL allele increased body mass by 141.86 g at 20 weeks. Using body weight as a covariate in the analysis of body composition traits provided evidence for genes in the GGA4 QTL region affecting fat mass independently of body mass. The QTL effect size differed between sexes and depended on the direction of cross. TBC1D1, CCKAR and PPARGC1A are functional candidate genes in the QTL peak region. Our study confirmed the importance of the distal GGA4 region for chicken growth performance. The strong effect of the GGA4 QTL makes fine mapping and gene discovery feasible.
authors.affiliation: Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Nassar
authors.affiliation: Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Z S
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Goraga
authors.affiliation: Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Brockmann
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics; D001835:Body Weight / Q000235:genetics*; D001947:Breeding; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci
keywords: CCKAR; Inbreeding; PPARGC1A; TBC1D1; body weight; body weight gain; gene mapping; growth; linkage; selection