Genomic scan for identifying candidate genes for paratuberculosis resistance in sheep

Abstract

Breeding objectives relating to health, functional traits and welfare need to receive priority in the research programs and selection schemes, but very few reports are available on natural resistant genotypes in livestock, where some important diseases cause severe economic losses and pose serious zoonotic threats. In this study, diagnosis of paratuberculosis was performed on 759 adult sheep, from a single flock, with the serum antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; 100 sheep were selected among the extreme divergent animals for the S/P ratio obtained from the test, and were genotyped on the Illumina Ovine SNP50K BeadChip. A genome-wide scan was then performed on the individual marker genotypes, in the attempt to identify genomic regions associated with disease resistance in sheep. For each marker, the allelic substitution effect was calculated by regressing the S/P value on the number of copies of the reference allele. The position on the OARv3.1 Genome Assembly was searched for 32 markers, which showed a statistically significant allelic substitution effect (Raw P < 0.0006 and FDR P < 0.09). All markers were located within, or close to, annotated genes. Five of these genes, SEMA3, CD109, PCP4, PRDM2 and ITFG2 are referred in literature to play a role in either disease resistance or cell-mediated immune response.