Genome wide association study in goat identified novel SNPs and genes for growth

Abstract A higher body weight at a younger age is an economically important trait for profitable goat farming. This study was focused on the identification of regions of the genome that harbor genetic variants associated with body weight using the Illumina GoatSNP50K Bead Chip. A total of 631 purebred Beetal goats (151 males and 480 females) were recorded for body weight, age and body measurement and then genotyped. Genome wide association analysis was carried out with GEMMA. After application of quality control filters with Plink 1.9, call rate less or equal than 0.9, minor allele frequency less than 0.05 and HWE P value lesser than 0.001, 594 animals and 45,744 SNPs were retained for association analysis. The association analysis for body weight with covariates of age, sex and morphometric measurements and contemporary group yielded 10 significant SNPs (P = -log10e-4 to -log10e-6). Three associated SNPs were within genes i.e., BTAF1, NTM and GRID1 when blasted against ARS1(accession GCA_001704415.1). Moreover, some associated SNPs were localized close to CEP78, ROBO1, ZFP36L2, SPTLC3, CTR9 and ZFHX3 genes. The study identified SNPs and genes with potential role in growth of goat.