Detecting Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in and and Elucidating Their Association with Sheep Growth Traits.

Herein we detected single nucleotide polymorphisms in and by DNA sequencing and the KASPar technology and analyzed their association with sheep growth traits. Two synonymous mutations, g.1826 C > T and g.10266 G > C, were detected, respectively, and they were found to be significantly associated with sheep growth traits ( < 0.05). In case of g.1826 C > T, the average body weight and chest and cannon circumference of sheep with the CC genotype were significantly higher than those of sheep with the CT and TT genotypes ( < 0.05). Moreover, in case of g.10266 G > C, the average body weight and chest and cannon circumference of sheep with the GG genotype were significantly higher than those of sheep with the GC and CC genotypes ( < 0.05). Moreover, the average body weight of sheep with the CC/GG genotype was higher compared with those of other genotype combinations. We also assessed and expression in different sheep tissues, confirming their expression in all examined tissues. To summarize, we believe that the polymorphisms identified in and can serve as molecular markers for sheep growth traits.