No abstract

Coat color is an important characteristic and economic trait in domestic sheep. Aiming at alteration of Chinese merino sheep coat color by genome manipulation, we disrupted sheep agouti signaling protein gene by CRISPR/Cas9. A total of seven indels were identified in 5 of 6 born lambs. Each targeted lamb happened at least two kinds of modifications, and targeted lambs with multiple modifications displayed variety of coat color patterns. Three lambs with 4 bp deletion showed badgerface with black body coat color in two lambs, and brown coat color with light ventral pigmentation in another one. The black-white spotted color was observed in two lambs with 2 bp deletion. Further analysis unraveled that modifications happened in one or more than two copies of ASIP gene, and moreover, the additional spontaneous mutations of D9 and/or D5 preceding the targeting modification could also involve the formation of coat color patterns. Taken together, the entanglement of ASIP modifications by CRISPR/Cas9, spontaneous D9/D5 mutations, and ASIP gene duplications contributed to the variety of coat color patterns in targeted lambs.

Understanding the genetic mechanisms of phenotypic variation in hybrids between domestic animals and their wild relatives may aid germplasm innovation. Here, we report the high-quality genome assemblies and high-throughput sequencing of 425 ovine animals, including the Pamir argali (O. ammon polii, 2n = 56), Tibetan sheep (O. aries, 2n = 54), and their hybrids (2n = 55). We detected genomic synteny between Chromosome 2 of sheep and two acrocentric chromosomes of argali. We revealed consistent satellite repeats around the chromosome breakpoints, which could have resulted in chromosome fusion. We observed many more hybrids with karyotype 2n = 54 than with 2n = 55, which could be explained by the selfish centromeres, the possibly decreased rate of normal/balanced sperm and the increased incidence of early pregnancy loss in the aneuploid ewes or rams. We identified genes and variants associated with important morphological and production traits (e.g., body weight, cannon circumference, hip height, and tail length) that exhibit significant variations. We revealed a strong selective signature at the mutation (c.334C>A, p. G112 W) in TBXT and confirmed its association with tail length among sheep populations of wide geographic and genetic origins. We produced an intercross population of 110 F2 offspring with varied number of vertebrae and validated the causal mutation by whole-genome association analysis. We verified its function using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. Our results provide insights into chromosomal speciation and phenotypic evolution and a foundation of genetic variants for the breeding of sheep and other animals.