title: A genome-wide association study identifies a genomic region for the polycerate phenotype in sheep (Ovis aries).
abstract: Horns are a cranial appendage found exclusively in Bovidae, and play important roles in accessing resources and mates. In sheep (Ovies aries), horns vary from polled to six-horned, and human have been selecting polled animals in farming and breeding. Here, we conducted a genome-wide association study on 24 two-horned versus 22 four-horned phenotypes in a native Chinese breed of Sishui Fur sheep. Together with linkage disequilibrium (LD) analyses and haplotype-based association tests, we identified a genomic region comprising 132.0-133.1 Mb on chromosome 2 that contained the top 10 SNPs (including 4 significant SNPs) and 5 most significant haplotypes associated with the polycerate phenotype. In humans and mice, this genomic region contains the HOXD gene cluster and adjacent functional genes EVX2 and KIAA1715, which have a close association with the formation of limbs and genital buds. Our results provide new insights into the genetic basis underlying variable numbers of horns and represent a new resource for use in sheep genetics and breeding.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.|Department of Life Sciences, Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu 476000, China.
authors.forename: Guang-Li
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Feng
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yong-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Ze-Hui
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Bureau of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Sishui County, Jining 273200, China.
authors.forename: Fu-An
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Green Technology, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Jokioinen 31600, Finland.|Department of Biology, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70211, Finland.
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kantanen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Sciences, Shihezi 832000, China.|Key Laboratory of Sheep Breeding and Development Technology of Xinjiang Production and Construction Crops (XPCC), Shihezi 832000, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Meng-Hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D016678:Genome; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D023281:Genomics; D006239:Haplotypes; D006733:Horns; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011786:Quality Control; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics*