Genome-wide association analysis reveal the genetic reasons affect melanin spot accumulation in beak skin of ducks

BMC Genomics

Wei Huang¹  Jianmei Wang¹  Ming Xie¹  Zhanbao Guo¹  Zhengkui Zhou¹  Dapeng Liu¹  Jian Hu²  Wenlei Fan²  Shuisheng Hou³  Yunsheng Zhang³  Qi Zhang³  Hehe Liu³  Jing Tang³  Lei Wang³  Yaxi Xu³ 

[1] Key Laboratory of Animal (Poultry) Genetics Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences;Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University;State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition;

关键词: Beak skin melanin spot;    Duck;    GWAS;    Genetic;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12864-022-08444-5

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Skin pigmentation is a broadly appearing phenomenon of most animals and humans in nature. Here we used a bird model to investigate why melanin spot deposits on the skin. Results Our result showed that growth age and the sunlight might induce melanin deposition in bird beak skin which was determined by genetic factors. GWAS helped us to identify two major loci affecting melanin deposition, located on chromosomes 13 and 25, respectively. The fine mapping works narrowed the candidate regions to 0.98 Mb and 1.0 Mb on chromosomes 13 and 25. The MITF and POU2F3 may be the causative genes and synergistically affect melanin deposition during duck beak skin. Furthermore, our data strongly demonstrated that the pathway of melanin metabolism contributes to melanin deposition on the skin. Conclusions We demonstrated that age and sunlight induce melanin deposition in bird beak skin, while heredity is fundamental. The MITF and POU2F3 likely played a synergistic effect on the regulation of melanin synthesis, and their mutations contribute to phenotypic differences in beak melanin deposition among individuals. It is pointed out that melanin deposition in the skin is related to the pathway of melanin metabolism, which provided insights into the molecular regulatory mechanisms and the genetic improvement of the melanin deposition in duck beak.

【 授权许可】

Unknown