Genetic variations for egg internal quality of ducks revealed by genome‐wide association study

Abstract

Summary Egg internal quality traits are important traits related to egg production in poultry industry. To better understand the genetic architecture of egg internal quality traits in ducks, we performed genetic parameters estimates and a genome‐wide association study (GWAS). The phenotypic values of egg weight, yolk color, albumin height (AH), yolk weight, and Haugh unit (HU) were collected individually from 352 F2 laying ducks produced by reciprocal crosses between mallards and Pekin ducks, and their genotypes were assayed by whole genome re‐sequencing. The results showed that the AH and HU traits have a clear coefficient of variance, around 15% for both mallards and Pekin ducks. The pedigree‐based genetic parameters estimates rane from 0.26 to 0.71 for all eight egg quality traits, while the highest heritability was 0.71 for egg weight. The GWAS showed that a clear signal was associated with AH and HU traits. The locus zoom analysis and conditional GWAS helped to narrow the candidate region to ~5.8‐Mb spanning from 14.7 to 20.5 Mb on Chromosome 5, which harbored 111 candidate genes. MUC6 and LDLRAD3 were finally promised as the major candidate genes affecting albumen composition. Our data revealed the egg internal quality traits for the first time in ducks, which provides a theoretical basis and technological support for improving duck egg internal quality.

Phenotypic Identification, Genetic Characterization, and Selective Signal Detection of Huitang Duck

“…Growth and development serve as key criteria in poultry breeding and selection, with body size reflecting developmental status, particularly the growth of muscles and bones [ 31 ]. Internal quality traits of eggs play a crucial role in the context of poultry egg production [ 32 ]. The flavor and nutritional value of duck meat are directly influenced by the composition and quantity of amino acids; a higher content of amino acids leads to a sweet and meaty aroma [ 33 , 34 ].…”

379. Multivariate GWAS revealed a critical region on chromosome 4 for developmental and feather growth traits in ducks

“…Pekin duck has become the predominant breed used for meat, egg and feather production in the global duck industry. Current literature on duck genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is limited to univariate models conducted on quantitative traits such as growth and carcass traits , Zhou et al 2018, feeding behaviour (Zhu et al 2019) and egg production (Liu et al 2021) with no multivariate GWAS reported so far in ducks.…”