Transgenerational epigenetic variance for body weight in meat quails

Area of Science:

• Animal Genetics
• Epigenetics
• Quantitative Genetics

Background:

• Body weight is a crucial trait in meat quail production.
• Understanding the sources of variation in body weight is essential for genetic improvement.
• Epigenetic inheritance may contribute to phenotypic variation beyond Mendelian genetics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate transgenerational epigenetic variance for body weight in meat quails.
• To determine the significance of epigenetic effects on early and later body weight.
• To assess the contribution of epigenetic factors to the heritability of body weight.

Main Methods:

• Utilized genealogical and phenotypic data from meat quails.
• Performed single-trait genetic analyses using mixed models with random epigenetic effects.
• Estimated variance components via restricted maximum likelihood and a grid search for the autoregressive parameter (λ).

Main Results:

• Epigenetic effects were significant only for body weight at 7 days (BW7).
• Direct heritability estimates for body weight ranged from 0.15 to 0.26, highest for BW7.
• Epigenetic heritability was 0.10 for BW7 and near zero for subsequent weights.

Conclusions:

• Epigenetic effects play a significant role in early body weight variation in meat quails.
• The inclusion of epigenetic effects improved the explanation of residual and non-Mendelian variability for initial body weight.
• Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is a relevant factor for early growth traits in poultry.