Identification and worldwide populational distribution of personality-related candidate genes in goat (Capra Hircus) using a translational approach

Abstract

Biodiversity of farm animals is a highly valuable resource for sustainable development of humanity especially when faced environmental and economic changes. Intensification of farm industry destabilizes animal’s genetic diversity. Farm animals’ behaviour shaped during the long period off domestication might be of the specific risk being poorly investigated due to the difficulties in measuring behavioural traits. Here we use translational approach by identifying goat orthologues of human personality-related genes as in the recent study of Tamu Yokomori et al. (2023) that dealt with racing horses’ personality. We extended this approach by using a huge dataset covering goat populations through all the World, that allowed to investigate populational distribution of alleles in personality related genes. We identified 41 SPN in 18 genes that were previously shown to be polymorphic both in human and horses in the study of Yokomori et al. Many of them showed highly asymmetric distribution that suggest an important role for these genes in goat evolution and domestication.