Identification of genomic regions and candidate genes associated with body weight and body conformation traits in Karachai goats

The objective of this study was to investigate the genomic regions and candidate genes related to body weight and body conformation traits in Karachai goats at age 8 months in Russia by using genome wide association study (GWAS), we genotyped 269 goats and 53347 informative SNPs. SNPs were identified for all traits studied at age 8 months: body weight (5 SNPs), withers height (7 SNPs), rump height (9 SNPs), body length (6 SNPs), chest perimeter (4 SNPs), chest witdth (30 SNPs), chest depth (1 SNPs) and Rump width (5 SNPs). The most significant number of candidate genes was identified at Chr13 (33 candidate genes for the 5 traits). The most significant genes for body weight are CRADD, HMGA2, MSRB3, MAX, HACL1 and RAB15, which are growth factors with high expression in cell growth and development in animal body. APOB, PTPRK, BCAR1, AOAH and ASAH1 genes have been associated with withers height, rump height and body length, these genes regulate metabolism process in cells and are involved in various metabolic processes, including fatty acid metabolism and lipopolysaccharide catabolism. Also, WDR70, ZBTB24 and SORCS3 genes were linked to chest width. KCNG4 was associated with rump height, body length and chest perimeter. The identificated candidate genes can be used as a molecular marker for growth traits selection in goats, which increase genetic improvement in russian goat breeds.