Genome-wide association study identifies multiple loci influencing duck serum biochemical indicators in the laying period

ABSTRACT

1. Laying performance is an important economic trait in poultry. The blood is essential in transporting nutrients to the yolk and albumen and is necessary for egg formation.

2. This study calculated the phenotypic relationships of duck egg quality, egg production efficiency and 22 serum parameters in the egg-laying stage. Using a variety of methodologies, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was carried out to uncover the genetic foundations of the 22 serum biochemical markers of laying ducks.

3. Spearman correlation coefficients between the egg production (226–329 per day) and the serum parameters were all weak, being less than 0.3. This analysis was done on 22 serum parameters, with total protein (TP), total triglycerides (TG), calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) having the highest correlation coefficients (r = 0.56–0.88). The coefficients for blood markers, such as total cholesterol (CHOL), total bilirubin (TBIL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) varied from 0.70–0.94.

4. Based on single-marker single-trait genome-wide analyses by a mixed linear model program of EMMAX, nine candidate genes were associated with enzyme traits (AST/ALT aspartate transaminase/glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, creatine kinase) and 19 candidate genes were associated with metabolism and protein-related serum parameters (glucose, total bile acid, uric acid (UA), albumin (ALB).

5. The mvLMM (multivariate linear mixed model) of GEMMA software was used to carry out multiple trait integrated GWAS. Two candidate genes were found in the TP-TG-CA-P analysis and seven candidate genes in the CHOL_LDL-C_HDL-C_TBIL study. There was a high genetic correlation between the two groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Serum
• biochemical indicator
• laying period
• GWAS
• ducks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00071668.2023.2272982

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31972523]; the National Key R&D Program of China [2022YFF1000100]; the China Agriculture Research System of Waterfowl [CARS-42].