Association between the copy number variation of gene and growth traits in Chinese (goat) populations.

Recently, Coiled-coil serine-rich protein 1 () gene is reported to be related to economic traits in livestock, and become a hotspot. In our study, we detected gene CNV in 693 goats from six breeds (GZB, GZW, AN, BH, HG, TH) by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and the association analysis between the types of CNV and growth traits. Then, gene expression pattern was discovered in seven tissues from NB goats. Our results showed that the gene copy numbers were distributed differently in the aforementioned six breeds. The type of gene CNV was significantly associated with body weight and heart girth traits in GZW goat, in which individuals with deletion type were dominant in body weight trait ( < 0.05), while the normal type individuals were more advantageous in heart girth trait ( < 0.01); and there was a significant association with heart girth in TH goat ( < 0.05), which normal type was the dominant one. The expression profile revealed that gene has the highest level in the lung, followed by the small intestine and heart. In conclusion, our result is dedicated to an in-depth study of the novel gene CNV site and to provide essential information for Chinese goats molecular selective breeding in the future.