Identification of quantitative trait transcripts for growth traits in the large scales of liver and muscle samples

Growth-related traits are economically important traits to the pig industry. Identification of causative gene and mutation responsible for growth-related QTL will facilitate the improvement of pig growth through marker-assisted selection. In this study, we applied whole genome gene expression and quantitative trait transcript (QTT) analyses in 497 liver and 586 longissimus dorsi muscle samples to identify candidate genes and dissect the genetic basis of pig growth in a white Duroc × Erhualian F2 resource population. A total of 20,108 transcripts in liver and 23,728 transcripts in muscle with expression values were used for association analysis between gene expression level and phenotypic value. At the significance threshold of P < 0.0005, we identified a total of 169 and 168 QTTs for nine growth-related traits in liver and muscle, respectively. We also found that some QTTs were correlated to more than one trait. The QTTs identified here showed high tissue specificity. We did not identify any QTTs that were associated with one trait in both liver and muscle. Through an integrative genomic approach, we identified SDR16C5 as the important candidate gene in pig growth trait. These findings contribute to further identification of the causative genes for porcine growth traits and facilitate improvement of pig breeding.