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In order to find SNPs and genes affecting shank traits, we performed a GWAS in a chicken F2 population of eight half‐sib families from five hatches derived from reciprocal crosses between an Arian fast‐growing line and an Urmia indigenous slow‐growing chicken. A total of 308 birds were genotyped using a 60K chicken SNP chip. Shank traits including shank length and diameter were measured weekly from birth to 12 weeks of age. A generalized linear model and a compressed mixed linear model (CMLM) were applied to achieve the significant regions. The value of the average genomic inflation factor (λ statistic) of the CMLM model (0.99) indicated that the CMLM was more effective than the generalized linear model in controlling the population structure. The genes surrounding significant SNPs and their biological functions were identified from NCBI, Ensembl and UniProt databases. The results indicated that 12 SNPs at 12 different ages passed the LD‐adjusted 5% Bonferroni significant threshold. Two SNPs were significant for shank length and nine SNPs were significant for shank diameter. The significant SNPs were located near to or inside 11 candidate genes. The results showed that a number of significant SNPs in the middle ages were higher than the rest. The MXRA8 gene was related to the significant SNP at week 1 that promotes proliferation of growth plate chondrocytes. A unique SNP of Gga_rs16689511 located on chicken Z chromosome within the LOC101747628 gene was related to shank length at three different ages of birds (weeks 8, 9 and 11). The significant SNPs for shank diameter were found at weeks 4 and 7 (four and five SNPs respectively). The identifications of SNPs and genes here could contribute to a better understanding of the genetic control of shank traits in chicken.

Allele frequencies of eight microsatellite loci as GUJ0001, GUJ0021, GUJ0034, GUJ0041, GUJ0049, GUJ0059, GUJ0070 and GUJ0097 was estimated for four strain of Japanese quail in Iran. Whole blood samples were collected from 200 individuals belonging to four strain (Pharach, Panda, Tuxedo and Golden).Total Genomic DNA was extracted by the GUSN-Silica Gel kit. The extracted DNA was amplified through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Of the eight microsatellite loci used in this study, two loci ( GUJ0001 and GUJ0041 ) were monomorphic in Panda and Texedo, respectively. The highest and the lowest PIC values belonged to GUJ0059 in Golden (0.815) and GUJ0041 in Panda strain (0.427), respectively. The expected heterozygosity varied between 0.708 and 0.849. All locus-strain combinations deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium except GUJ0041 in Pharach strain, GUJ0021, GUJ0034, GUJ0041 and GUJ0097 in Panda strain and GUJ0034, GUJ0049 and GUJ0070 in Golden strain (p < 0.001). Results suggest the effectiveness of this set of loci for testing genetic relatedness.

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