Polygenic and sex specific architecture for two maturation traits in farmed Atlantic salmon

Abstract Background A key developmental transformation in the life of all vertebrates is the transition to sexual maturity, whereby individuals are capable of reproducing for the first time. In the farming of Atlantic salmon, early maturation prior to harvest size has serious negative production imp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC Genomics
Main Authors: Amin R. Mohamed, Klara L. Verbyla, Hawlader A. Al-Mamun, Sean McWilliam, Bradley Evans, Harry King, Peter Kube, James W. Kijas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BMC 2019
Subjects:
Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Sexual maturation
Genetic architecture
GWAS
SNP
Picalm
Biotechnology
TP248.13-248.65
Genetics
QH426-470
Atlantic salmon
Salmo salar
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5525-4
https://doaj.org/article/0f623c9b292546bc9eb5f43050e0a51f
Description
Summary:Abstract Background A key developmental transformation in the life of all vertebrates is the transition to sexual maturity, whereby individuals are capable of reproducing for the first time. In the farming of Atlantic salmon, early maturation prior to harvest size has serious negative production impacts. Results We report genome wide association studies (GWAS) using fish measured for sexual maturation in freshwater or the marine environment. Genotypic data from a custom 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array was used to identify 13 significantly associated SNP for freshwater maturation with the most strongly associated on chromosomes 10 and 11. A higher number of associations (48) were detected for marine maturation, and the two peak loci were found to be the same for both traits. The number and broad distribution of GWAS hits confirmed a highly polygenetic nature, and GWAS performed separately within males and females revealed sex specific genetic behaviour for loci co-located with positional candidate genes phosphatidylinositol-binding clathrin assembly protein-like (picalm) and membrane-associated guanylate kinase, WW and PDZ domain-containing protein 2 (magi2). Conclusions The results extend earlier work and have implications for future applied breeding strategies to delay maturation in this important aquaculture species.

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