Genetic basis of ear length in sheep breeds sampled across the region from the Middle East to the Alps

Klawatsch, Jürgen (author), Papachristou, Dimitris (author), Koutsouli, Panagiota (author), Upadhyay, Maulik (author), Seichter, Doris (author), Russ, Ingolf (author), Mioč, Boro (author), Simčič, Mojca (author), Bizelis, Iosif (author), Medjugorac, Ivica (author)

Ear length in sheep (Ovis aries) shows a wide range of natural variation, from the absence of an outer ear structure (anotia), to small outer ears (microtia), to regular ear length. Up until now, the underlying genetics of this phenotype has been studied in four sheep breeds from China, Jordan and Italy. These studies revealed a broad range of genes significantly associated with ear length, potentially indicating genetic heterogeneity across breeds or geographic regions. In the current study, we performed genome-wide SNP genotyping and haplotype-based mapping, in a population of 340 individuals, to identify loci influencing ear length variation in additional sheep breeds from Slovenia, Croatia, Cyprus and Greece. Additionally, two previously described candidate variants were also genotyped in our mapping population. The mapping model without candidate variant genotypes revealed only one genome-wide significant signal, which was located next to HMX1 on OAR6. This region was previously described as being associated with ear length variation in the Altay and Awassi sheep breeds. The mapping model including the candidate duplication genotype near HMX1 as a fixed effect explained the phenotypic variance on OAR6 and revealed an additional genome-wide significant locus on OAR13 associated with ear length. Our results, combined with published evidence, suggest that a duplication in the evolutionarily conserved region near HMX1 is the major regulator of ear length in sheep breeds descended from a larger region from Central Asia, to the Middle East, Cyprus, Greece and to the Alps. This distribution suggests an ancient origin of the derived allele.

• Language: English
• Keywords: ear length, genetic mapping, ruminants, sheep
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 123-133
• Numbering: Vol. 55, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154353
• UDC: 636.3
• ISSN on article: 1365-2052
• DOI: 10.1111/age.13387
• COBISS.SI-ID: 176898563
• Publication date in RUL: 12.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Animal genetics
• Shortened title: Anim. genet.
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1365-2052
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2344072

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: ovce, pasme, uhlji, dolžina uhljev, genetika