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Abstract
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Pedigree on 7253 individuals and data information on growth traits and greasy yearling fleece weight collected from 1979 to 2013 at the Breeding Station of Raeini Cashmere goat, south-east of Iran, were used for genetic analysis of parent of origin effects for these traits using a gametic relationship matrix. The studied traits included birth weight (BW; 4747 records), weaning weight (WW; 3268 records), six months weight (6MW; 2855 records), nine months weight (9MW; 1407 records), yearling weight (YW; 1013 records), and yearling greasy fleece weight (YFW; 1272 records). Models including or excluding imprinting (maternal and paternal) effects were compared by applying Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Paternal imprinting effects did not influence any of the studied traits. Maternal imprinting effects explained 9, 6, 9, 18, and 6% of phenotypic variances for WW, 6MW, 9MW, YW, and YFW, respectively. By including the maternal imprinting effects in the model used for genetic analysis, direct heritability estimates for WW (from 0.04 to 0.01), 9MW (0.24 to 0.15), YW (from 0.31 to 0.14), and YFW (0.18 to 0.09) were decreased, implying a considerable proportion of the maternal imprinting effects for these traits may overlap with direct additive genetic effects. BW did not influence by imprinting effects. Strong maternal imprinting correlations among body weights at different ages (except for BW) showed that WW, 6MW, 9MW, and YW share similar genes with maternally imprinted effects. It means that the imprinting effects of genes are not limited to a specific stage of life and can be active in different stages of growth. Maternal imprinting correlation estimates between YFW and other traits were not statistically significant. Therefore, imprinting effects may be crucial for the genetically evaluating of these traits in the Raeini Cashmere goat.
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