title: A Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Multiple Regions Associated with Head Size in Catfish.
abstract: Skull morphology is fundamental to evolution and the biological adaptation of species to their environments. With aquaculture fish species, head size is also important for economic reasons because it has a direct impact on fillet yield. However, little is known about the underlying genetic basis of head size. Catfish is the primary aquaculture species in the United States. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study using the catfish 250K SNP array with backcross hybrid catfish to map the QTL for head size (head length, head width, and head depth). One significantly associated region on linkage group (LG) 7 was identified for head length. In addition, LGs 7, 9, and 16 contain suggestively associated regions for head length. For head width, significantly associated regions were found on LG9, and additional suggestively associated regions were identified on LGs 5 and 7. No region was found associated with head depth. Head size genetic loci were mapped in catfish to genomic regions with candidate genes involved in bone development. Comparative analysis indicated that homologs of several candidate genes are also involved in skull morphology in various other species ranging from amphibian to mammalian species, suggesting possible evolutionary conservation of those genes in the control of skull morphologies.
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Geng
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Shikai
authors: S
authors: Liu
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Yao
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Lisui
authors: L
authors: Bao
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Jiaren
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Chao
authors: C
authors: Li
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Ruijia
authors: R
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Biostatistics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama 35294.
authors: Jin
authors: J
authors: Sha
authors: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Auburn University, Alabama 36849.
authors: Peng
authors: P
authors: Zeng
authors: School of Biomedical Informatics, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas 70030 School of Public Health, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas 77030.
authors: Degui
authors: D
authors: Zhi
authors: Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, Aquatic Genomics Unit, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama 36849 liuzhan@auburn.edu.
authors: Zhanjiang
authors: Z
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D002397:Catfishes / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable
keywords: GWAS; GenPred; QTL; fish; genomic selection; head size; hybrid; shared data resources