title: Genome-wide association study of aggressive behaviour in chicken.
abstract: In the poultry industry, aggressive behaviour is a large animal welfare issue all over the world. To date, little is known about the underlying genetics of the aggressive behaviour. Here, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to explore the genetic mechanism associated with aggressive behaviour in chickens. The GWAS results showed that a total of 33 SNPs were associated with aggressive behaviour traits (P < 4.6E-6). rs312463697 on chromosome 4 was significantly associated with aggression (P = 2.10905E-07), and it was in the intron region of the sortilin-related VPS10 domain containing receptor 2 (SORCS2) gene. In addition, biological function analysis of the nearest 26 genes around the significant SNPs was performed with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis. An interaction network contained 17 genes was obtained and SORCS2 was involved in this network, interacted with nerve growth factor (NGF), nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR), dopa decarboxylase (L-dopa) and dopamine. After knockdown of SORCS2, the mRNA levels of NGF, L-dopa and dopamine receptor genes DRD1, DRD2, DRD3 and DRD4 were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). In summary, our data indicated that SORCS2 might play an important role in chicken aggressive behaviour through the regulation of dopaminergic pathways and NGF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Zhenhui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Bahareldin Ali
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Abdalla
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Wens NanFang Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd., YunFu 527400, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Zhenqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Qiao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Haiping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.|Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding and Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Xiquan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D030161:Avian Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics*; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
chemical_list: D030161:Avian Proteins