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Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals the Genetic Basis of Duck Plumage Colors
Xinye Zhang1, Tao Zhu1, Liang Wang2
1National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Yuanmingyuan West Road 2, Beijing 100193, China.
Abstract:
Plumage color is an artificially and naturally selected trait in domestic ducks. Black, white, and spotty are the main feather colors in domestic ducks. Previous studies have shown that black plumage color is caused by MC1R, and white plumage color is caused by MITF. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify candidate genes associated with white, black, and spotty plumage in ducks. Two non-synonymous SNPs in MC1R (c.52G>A and c.376G>A) were significantly related to duck black plumage, and three SNPs in MITF (chr13:15411658A>G, chr13:15412570T>C and chr13:15412592C>G) were associated with white plumage. Additionally, we also identified the epistatic interactions between causing loci. Some ducks with white plumage carry the c.52G>A and c.376G>A in MC1R, which also compensated for black and spotty plumage color phenotypes, suggesting that MC1R and MITF have an epistatic effect. The MITF locus was supposed to be an upstream gene to MC1R underlying the white, black, and spotty colors. Although the specific mechanism remains to be further clarified, these findings support the importance of epistasis in plumage color variation in ducks.
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