title: Genetic architecture of fatty acid composition in the longissimus dorsi muscle revealed by genome-wide association studies on diverse pig populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fatty acid composition in muscle is an important factor that affects the nutritive value and taste of pork. To investigate the genetic architecture of fatty acid composition of pork, we measured fatty acid contents in longissimus dorsi muscle of 1244 pigs from three divergent populations and conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for fatty acid contents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We detected 26 genome-wide significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) on eight chromosomes (SSC for Sus scrofa) for eight fatty acids. These loci not only replicated previously reported QTL for C18:0 on SSC14 and C20:0 on SSC16, but also included several novel QTL such as those for C20:1 on SSC7, C14:0 on SSC9, and C14:0, C16:0 and C16:1 on SSC12. Furthermore, we performed a meta-analysis of GWAS on five populations, including the three populations that were investigated in this study and two additional populations that we had previously examined. This enhanced the strength of the associations detected between fatty acid composition and several marker loci, especially for those for C18:0 on SSC14 and C20:0 on SSC16. The genes ELOVL5, ELOVL6, ELOVL7, FASN, SCD and THRSP, which have functions that are directly relevant to fatty acid metabolism, are proximal to the top associated markers at six significant QTL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings improve our understanding of the genetic architecture of fatty acid composition in pork and contribute to further fine-map and characterize genes that influence fatty acid composition.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. wanchangzhang@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Wanchang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. 769281421@qq.com.
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. leileicui_xuan@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Leilei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. ma_junwu@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Junwu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. chcy75@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Congying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. aihsh@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Huashui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. 214484061@qq.com.
authors.forename: Xianhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. li_lin1011@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. shjx_jxau@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Shijun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. lushenghuang@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Lusheng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. renjunjxau@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Pig Genetic Improvement and Production Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China. binyang@live.cn.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001562:Benzimidazoles; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry*; D010641:Phenotype; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001562:Benzimidazoles; D005227:Fatty Acids; C064932:1-ethoxyethyl-2-dimethylaminoethylthiobenzimidazole