Variants in GH, IGF1, and LEP genes associated with body traits in Santa Ines sheep

Growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), and leptin (LEP) can be candidate genes for association studies because they play vital roles in the metabolism process. Thus, this study aimed to identify variants in these genes associated with body traits in Santa Ines sheep. The following were recorded: body weight at 100 (BW100) and 240 days (BW240), average daily gain (ADG), withers (WH) and croup (CH) heights, body length (BL), thoracic (TG) and leg (LG) girths, thoracic (TW) and croup (CW) widths, body depth (BD), rib eye area (REA), fat thickness (FT), and carcass finishing score (CFS). Single-locus association analysis was performed with 11 variants in IGF1, 18 in LEP, and 16 in GH. Moreover, two haplotypes in IGF1 and one haplotype in LEP were evaluated in haplotype association analysis. The singlelocus analysis revealed 23 suggestive additive effects (p < 0.05), but no additive effect was found at the Bonferroni threshold. Haplotype association analysis revealed 19 additive effects, of which ten were at the Bonferroni threshold (p < 0.0074). In IGF1 gene, haplotype replacements were associated with ADG 20.51(7.37), CH 4.09(1.21), WH 3.52(1.20), BL 3.94(1.19), TG 3.88(1.30), TW 1.13(0.36), and LG 3.40(1.08); while in the LEP gene the haplotype replacement was associated with BW100 1.83(0.51), BD -2.51(0.56), and CFS -0.24(0.06). Therefore, there are haplotypes in IGF1 and LEP genes associated with body traits in Santa Ines sheep, which can be useful in marker-assisted selection.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the association between growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1, and leptin genes with body traits in Santa Ines sheep. The single-locus and haplotype association analysis revealed significant relationships between variants in IGF1 and LEP genes with traits such as ADG, body height, and body width in the sheep.