The role of pleiotropy and linkage in genes affecting a sexual ornament and bone allocation in the chicken

Johnsson, M.; Rubin, C. -J.; Hoglund, A.; Sahlqvist, A. -S.; Jonsson, K. B.; Kerje, S.; Ekwall, O.; Kampe, O.; Andersson, L.; Jensen, P.; Wright, D.

doi:10.1111/mec.12723

Abstract

Sexual selection and the ornaments that inform such choices have been extensively studied, particularly from a phenotypic perspective. Although more is being revealed about the genetic architecture of sexual ornaments, much still remains to be discovered. The comb of the chicken is one of the most widely recognized sexual ornaments, which has been shown to be correlated with both fecundity and bone allocation. In this study, we use a combination of multiple intercrosses between White Leghorn populations and wild-derived Red Junglefowl to, first, map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for bone allocation and, second, to identify expression QTL that correlate and colocalize with comb mass. These candidate quantitative genes were then assessed for potential pleiotropic effects on bone tissue and fecundity traits. We identify genes that correlate with both relative comb mass and bone traits suggesting a combination of both pleiotropy and linkage mediates gene regulatory variation in these traits.

Keywords

bone allocation; domestication; QTG; QTL; sexual selection

Published in

Molecular Ecology
2014, volume: 23, number: 9, pages: 2275-2286

SLU Authors

Johnsson, Martin
- Linköping University

UKÄ Subject classification

Genetics and Genomics

Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.12723

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/86697