Data from: Conserved genetic architecture underlying recombination rate variation in a wild population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries)

Meiotic recombination breaks down linkage disequilibrium and forms new
haplotypes, meaning that it is an important driver of diversity in
eukaryotic genomes. Understanding the causes of variation in recombination
rate is important in interpreting and predicting evolutionary phenomena
and for understanding the potential of a population to respond to
selection. However, despite attention in model systems, there remains
little data on how recombination rate varies at the individual level in
natural populations. Here, we used extensive pedigree and high-density SNP
information in a wild population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries) to investigate
the genetic architecture of individual autosomal recombination rate.
Individual rates were high relative to other mammal systems, and were
higher in males than in females (autosomal map lengths of 3748 cM and 2860
cM, respectively). The heritability of autosomal recombination rate was
low but significant in both sexes (h2 = 0.16 & 0.12 in females and
males, respectively). In females, 46.7% of the heritable variation was
explained by a sub-telomeric region on chromosome 6; a genome-wide
association study showed the strongest associations at the locus RNF212,
with further associations observed at a nearby ~374kb region of complete
linkage disequilibrium containing three additional candidate loci, CPLX1,
GAK and PCGF3. A second region on chromosome 7 containing REC8 and RNF212B
explained 26.2% of the heritable variation in recombination rate in both
sexes. Comparative analyses with 40 other sheep breeds showed that
haplotypes associated with recombination rates are both old and globally
distributed. Both regions have been implicated in rate variation in mice,
cattle and humans, suggesting a common genetic architecture of
recombination rate variation in mammals.