A genome-wide association analysis for body, udder, and leg conformation traits recorded in Murciano-Granadina goats

Morphological traits are of great importance to dairy goat production given their effect on phenotypes of economic interest. However, their underlying genomic architecture has not yet been extensively characterized. Herein, we aimed to identify genomic regions associated with body, udder, and leg conformation traits recorded in 825 Murciano-Granadina goats. We genotyped this resource population using the GoatSNP50 BeadChip (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) and performed genome-wide association analyses using the GEMMA software. We found 2 genome-wide significant associations between markers rs268273468 [Capra hircus (CHI) 16:69617700] and rs268249346 (CHI 28:18321523) and medial suspensory ligament. In contrast, we did not detect any genome-wide significant associations for body and leg traits. Moreover, we found 12, 19, and 7 chromosome-wide significant associations for udder, body, and leg traits, respectively. Comparison of our data with previous studies revealed a low level of positional concordance between regions associated with morphological traits. In addition to technical factors, this lack of concordance could be due to a substantial level of genetic heterogeneity among breeds or to the strong polygenic background of morphological traits, which makes it difficult to detect genetic factors that have small phenotypic effects.This research was funded by the European Fund for Regional Development/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación/ Project Reference (AGL2016-76108-R). We acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” 2016-2019 (SEV-2015-0533), and from the CERCA programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Emilio Mármol-Sánchez was funded with an FPU PhD grant awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU15/01733). Maria Gracia Luigi-Sierra was funded with an FPI PhD grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (BES-2017-079709).Peer reviewe