title: Analysis of copy number variations by SNP50 BeadChip array in Chinese sheep.
abstract: The sheep (Ovis aries) plays a major socio-economic role in the world. Copy number variations (CNVs) are increasingly recognized as a key and potent source of genetic variation and phenotypic diversity, but little is known about the extent to which CNVs contribute to genetic variation in Chinese sheep breeds. Analyses of CNVs in the genomes of eight sheep breeds were performed using the sheep SNP50 BeadChip genotyping array. A total of 111 CNV regions (CNVRs) were obtained from 160 Chinese sheep breeds. These CNVRs covered 13.75Mb of the sheep genome sequence. A total of 22 Go terms and 17 candidate genes were obtained from the functional analysis. Ten CNVRs were selected for validation, of which 7 CNVRs were further experimentally confirmed by quantitative PCR. Four candidate genes were selected to confirm the results of the functional analysis. These results provide a resource for furthering understanding of ruminant biology, and for further improving the genetic quality of sheep breeds.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agriculture University, Lanzhou 730070, China. Electronic address: yjma@gsau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Youji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Gansu Agriculture University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Quanwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agriculture University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Zengkui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Gansu Agriculture University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Xingxu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Gansu Agriculture University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations; D016678:Genome; D023281:Genomics; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Copy number variations; Ovis aries; SNP50 BeadChip array; Sheep