Plumage color can be considered as a social signal in chickens and a breeding identification tool among breeders. The relationship between plumage color and trait groups of immunity, growth and fertility is still a controversial issue. This research aimed to determine the genome-wide additive and epistatic variants affecting plumage color variation in chickens using the chicken Illumina 60k high-density SNP array. Two scenarios of genome-wide additive association studies using all SNPs and independent SNPs were carried out. To perform epistatic association analysis, the LD pruning approach was used to reduce the complexity of the analysis. We detected seven novel significant loci using all of the SNPs in the model and 14 SNPs using the LD pruning approach associated with plumage color. Moreover, 89 significantly associated SNP-SNP interactions (P-value <10 −6 ) distributed in 25 chromosomes were identified, indicating that all of the signals together putatively influence the quantitative variation of plumage color. By annotating genes relevant to top SNPs, we have distinguished 18 potential candidate genes comprising HNF4beta, CKMT1B,
The Avian Uncoupling Protein (avUCP) belongs to the mitochondrial anion transporter family. It has a pivotal homeostatic mechanism that associated with energy regulation and lipid metabolism. The avUCP considered as a candidate gene for chicken growth-related traits according to its predominant expression is in skeletal muscle. To address genetic distance pattern of UCP3 between mammalian and avian species, sequence similarity analysis using the protein alignment of UCP3 identified the high amino acid identity between the species and complementarily detected two protein conserved regions which are known as the ADP/ATP transporter translocase and the Mitochondria-carrier. Likewise, for mutation detection, samples were genotyped, afterward PCR-SSCP method implemented. In addition, association analysis was performed for investigating single nucleotide polymorphism within the UCP3 gene relating to the given economic traits. A detected polymorphic site, on the promoter region of UCP3 (-40 T/A substitution), has displayed significant influences on the Feed Conversion Rate (FCR), Residual Feed Intake (RFI), Average Daily Gain (ADG), and Carcass Weight (CW%). In the case that, birds with genotype AA had better FCR, ADG, RFI as compared to the genotype BB and birds with genotype AA revealed a higher CW% as compared to the genotype BB. According to the obtained results from the in-silico survey, Myoblast determination protein (MyoD) was predicted as a best-matched transcription factor with a consensus sequence harboring the-40 T/A-novel SNP-in the promoter region of UCP3, where might be responsible for phenotypic variation between two genotypes. In conclusion, the result suggests important roles for UCP3 polymorphism in feed efficiency and growth traits which is better to be used in broiler chicken breeding programs.
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