Parallel selection mapping using artificially selected mice reveals body weight control loci (SNP)

Understanding how polygenic traits evolve and respond to selection is a major unsolved problem, because challenges exist for identifying genes underlying a complex trait and understanding how multi-locus selection operates in the genome. Here we used artificial selection experiments to study polygenic response to selection. Inbred strains from seven independent long-term selection experiments in mice for extreme bodyweight (“High” lines weigh 77-42g vs. 40-16g in “Controls” lines), were genotyped at 527,572 SNPs to identify genetic variants controlling bodyweight. We identified 67 high-resolution parallel selected regions (PSRs) where multiple High lines share variants rarely found among the Controls. By comparing allele frequencies in one selection experiment against its unselected control, we found classical selective sweep signatures centered on the PSRs. Multiple lines of evidence support two G protein-coupled receptors GPR133 and Prlhr, as positional candidate genes controlling bodyweight. Artificial selection may mimic natural selection in the wild: compared to control loci, we detected reduced heterozygosity in PSRs in wild populations of unusually large mice on islands. Many PSRs overlap loci associated with human height variation, possibly through evolutionary conservation of functional pathways. Our data suggest that parallel selection on complex traits may evoke parallel responses at many genes involved in diverse but relevant pathways. These samples were used to test the enrichment of certain gene functional categories. Genomic DNA SNP comparison between artificially selected high lines (BEH, DAHi, DUH, MUH, EDH, RAHi, Du6/G154 and Du6i/G80) and unselected control lines.