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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Livestock Bio-Systems » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #261577
Title: Genome-wide associations for age at puberty in a Duroc-Landrace-Yorkshire swine population

Author
item Nonneman, Danny - Dan
item Rohrer, Gary
item Rempel, Lea
item Wiedmann, Ralph
item Vallet, Jeff

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/1/2010
Publication Date: 1/15/2011
Citation: Nonneman, D.J., Rohrer, G.A., Rempel, L.A., Wiedmann, R.T., Vallet, J.L. 2011. Genome-wide associations for age at puberty in a Duroc-Landrace-Yorkshire swine population. Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings. Poster #P609.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Gilts that achieve puberty earlier tend to be more fertile throughout their breeding lifetime, have a shorter weaning to estrus interval, and have increased retention in the breeding herd with increases in parity. Age at puberty can be changed through selection, but collecting phenotypes can be labor intensive. Because age at puberty is a complex trait, identifying genes that affect pubertal age would greatly contribute to our knowledge of pubertal development. Estrous detection was monitored from 160 to 240 days of age with boar contact in an alleyway between pens of gilts. Nine hundred and eleven gilts representing generations 5-8 of a Duroc-Landrace-Yorkshire crossbred population were genotyped using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 Beadchip. Whole genome association analyses were performed using PLINK. Another group of gilts that did not reach puberty during the test period (non-pubertal; n=91) were analyzed with their pubertal littermates (n=127) using logistic regression (SAS PROC GLIMMIX). The most significant region associated with age at puberty was on SSC2 at 13 Mb with a minor allele frequency of 20% and accounted for about 2.5% of the phenotypic variation. Two regions were significantly associated on SSC1 at 64 and 215 Mb, but had low minor allele frequencies. The most significant region associated with failure of puberty was on SSC4 at 109 Mb (MAF=36%). Alignment of non-pubertal and quantitative associations showed that five different regions were associated with both. Further investigation should determine what genes are involved in attainment of puberty in gilts. *USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.