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Effects of genomic selection for intramuscular fat content in breast muscle in Chinese local chickens
Author(s) -
Liu R.,
Zheng M.,
Wang J.,
Cui H.,
Li Q.,
Liu J.,
Zhao G.,
Wen J.
Publication year - 2019
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.12744
Subject(s) - intramuscular fat , biology , heritability , trait , selection (genetic algorithm) , population , microbiology and biotechnology , snp , genetic gain , genotype , single nucleotide polymorphism , genetics , zoology , genetic variation , gene , demography , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , programming language
Summary Improvements in living standards have resulted in consumers having higher expectations for chicken meat quality. This is particularly true in Asia, where there is high consumer preference for local breeds. Nothing is presently known about the effectiveness of using genomic selection ( GS ) strategies in chickens to genetically improve meat quality traits that cannot be measured in living potential parents. In this study, 724 Beijing‐You chickens were used as a training population; all were genotyped using Illumina 60K SNP chips, and intramuscular fat content in breast muscle ( IMF br ) was measured. Birds in the GS line were selected based on genomic estimated breeding values, IMF br being the sole trait. Genetic progress in one generation was compared to that from conventional family‐based selection, and both were evaluated against random‐bred controls. Results showed that relative to the random‐bred controls, IMF percentage was improved 9.62% using GS , comparable to the 10.38% improvement using family‐based selection. We quantified the effectiveness of GS when applied to a meat quality trait with low heritability in chickens. We plan to introduce custom SNP chips, appropriate for native chicken breeds in China, to assist in applying GS in local breeding and accelerate genetic gain.