Detection of rs665862918 (15-bp Indel) of the HIAT1 Gene and its Strong Genetic Effects on Growth Traits in Goats

Abstract

The hippocampus abundant transcript 1 (<i>HIAT1</i>) gene, which was detected by the genome-wide identification of selective sweeps among elite goat breeds and water buffalo, is proposed to play an important role in meat characteristics. Four indels of the <i>HIAT1</i> gene selected from the NCBI and Ensembl databases were detected via a pooling and sequencing strategy. A 15 bp insertion (rs665862918) in the first intron of <i>HIAT1</i> was selected and classified on an electrophoresis platform in the Shaanbei white cashmere goat (SBWC) population. The correlation analysis revealed that rs665862918 is significantly highly associated with chest width (<i>p</i> = 1.57 × 10^-5), chest depth (<i>p</i> = 8.85 × 10^-5), heart girth (<i>p</i> = 1.05 × 10^-7), body length (<i>p</i> = 0.022), and height at hip cross (<i>p</i> = 0.023) in the SBWC population (<i>n</i> = 1013). Further analysis revealed that individuals with a genotype insertion/insertion (II) of the rs665862918 locus exhibited better growth trait performance than individuals with an insertion/deletion (ID) or deletion/deletion (DD). These findings verify that <i>HIAT1</i> affects the body size of goats and that rs665862918 could be a potential molecular marker for growth traits in goat breeding.