Genomic regions and pathways associated with gastrointestinal parasites resistance in Santa Inês breed adapted to tropical climate

Abstract

BACKGROUND: ). A total of 576 animals were genotyped with the Ovine SNP12k BeadChip (Illumina, Inc.), that contains 12,785 bialleleic SNP markers. The variance components were estimated using a single trait model by single step genomic BLUP procedure. RESULTS: for FAM, WBC, RBC, PLT, HCT and HGB traits were identified, respectively. Among the associated windows, 10 were shown to be common to HCT and HGB traits on OAR1, OAR2, OAR3, OAR5, OAR8 and OAR15. CONCLUSION: The traits indicating gastrointestinal parasites resistance presented an adequate genetic variability to respond to selection in Santa Inês breed, and it is expected a higher genetic gain for FAM trait when compared to the others. The level of LD estimated for markers separated by less than 1 Mb indicated that the Ovine SNP12k BeadChip might be a suitable tool for identifying genomic regions associated with traits related to gastrointestinal parasite resistance. Several candidate genes related to immune system development and activation, inflammatory response, regulation of lymphocytes and leukocytes proliferation were found. These genes may help in the selection of animals with higher resistance to parasites.