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The present study aimed to conduct a genome wide association studies (GWAS) based on Gene-set enrichment analysis for identifying the loci associated with growth traits using the 50K arrays. For this purpose, phenotypes records and genotypic data related to birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), six month weight (6MW) and 12 month weight (12MW) were obtained from 240 Hu sheep. Genome wide association study was performed with growth traits using TASSEL software. Using the biomaRt2 package R the SNP were assigned to genes if they were within the genomic sequence of the gene or within a flanking region of 15 kb up- and downstream of the gene. For the assignment of the genes to functional categories, the GO, KEGG, DAVID and PANTHER databases were used. By Gene set enrichment analysis, the biological pathways and candidate genes of regulation of skeletal muscle cell proliferation  and actin filament polymerization (MYOD1 and IGFBP4), regulation of anatomical structure morphogenesis, regulation of muscle system process and cell junction (BMP2, THBS1 and MYH10), regulation of skeletal muscle tissue development and regulation of anatomical structure size (FGF2, ANGPTL4, TGFBR3 and ACTR3), anatomical structure morphogenesis, positive regulation of ossification and cellular response to growth factor stimulus (MMP7, ACTA2, EGR1 and MYBPC3), for BW, WW, 6MW and 12MW were identified, respectively. The detected candidate genes played an important role in muscle structure development, glucose metabolism, Osteoclast differentiation, body size, skeletal muscle cell differentiation and regulation of ion calcium. These novel candidate genes identified in this study may be useful targets for clarifying our understanding of the molecular basis of growth traits in sheep. These results can provide new insight for future research into the genetic architecture of growth traits in sheep breeding program.

Keywords: Body weight, Candidate gene, Genome scan, sheep

     

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