Genotype and phenotype data of Chinese Sujiang pigs

Here we explored the GeneSeek
GGP Porcine 80K SNP chip to perform a genome-wide association study for seven growth and fatness traits in 365 individuals
from the Sujiang pig, a recently developed breed in China. We found
considerable phenotypic variability within this population. The genomic
heritability of the seven traits ranged from 0.33 to 0.62. We identified two,
17, one and 11 chromosome-wide significant (<i>P</i>
&lt; 1.87E-05, defined by the Bonferroni method) SNPs for body weight, chest
circumference, chest width and backfat thickness, respectively. Of these SNPs,
five and four SNPs were respectively associated with chest circumference and
backfat thickness at a genome-wide significant threshold (<i>P</i> &lt; 9.36E-07). Eight SNPs had pleiotropic effect on both chest
circumference and backfat thickness. The most remarkable locus resided in a region
between 79.41 Mb and 83.37 Mb on pig chromosome 4, harboring a number of
previously reported quantitative trait loci related to backfat deposition. In
addition to a known one (<i>TAS2R38</i>), we identified seven genes
including <i>APBA2</i>, <i>PRKDC</i>, <i>CEBPD</i>, <i>DPT</i>, <i>MPC2</i>,
<i>CREG1 </i>and <i>MGAM</i> as novel candidates for body weight and backfat thickness at
the mapped loci. Our findings provide insights into the genetic architecture of
porcine growth and fatness traits and potential markers for selective breeding
of Chinese Sujiang pigs.