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A genome‐wide association study indicates LCORL / NCAPG as a candidate locus for withers height in G erman W armblood horses
Author(s) -
Tetens J.,
Widmann P.,
Kühn C.,
Thaller G.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
animal genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.756
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2052
pISSN - 0268-9146
DOI - 10.1111/age.12031
Subject(s) - withers , warmblood , biology , genetics , candidate gene , quantitative trait locus , locus (genetics) , genome wide association study , genetic association , population , evolutionary biology , gene , single nucleotide polymorphism , genotype , horse , body weight , paleontology , demography , sociology , endocrinology
Summary A genome‐wide association scan for loci affecting withers height was conducted in 782 G erman W armblood stallions, which were genotyped using the I llumina E quine SNP 50 B ead C hip. A principal components approach was applied to correct for population structure. The analysis revealed a single major QTL on ECA 3 explaining ~18 per cent of the phenotypic variance, which is in concordance with recent reports from other horse populations. The LCORL / NCAPG locus represents a strong candidate gene for this QTL . This locus is among a small number that have consistently been identified to influence human height in several large meta‐analyses. Furthermore, a mutation within the NCAPG gene was found to affect growth and body frame size in cattle. Together with the results of this study in G erman W armbloods, these findings strongly indicate LCORL / NCAPG as a candidate locus for withers height in horses. Further studies are, however, needed to confirm this.