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Abstract
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Background: Investigating genomic regions associated with morphometric traits in
camels is valuable, because it allows a better understanding of adaptive and productive
features to implement a sustainable management and a customised breeding program
for dromedaries. Objectives: With a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 96 Iranian
dromedaries phenotyped for 12 morphometric traits and genotyped-by-sequencing
(GBS) with 14,522 SNPs, we aimed at identifying associated candidate genes.
Methods: The association between SNPs and morphometric traits was investigated
using a linear mixed model with principal component analysis (PCA) and kinship matrix.
Results: With this approach, we detected 59 SNPs located in 37 candidate genes
potentially associated to morphometric traits in dromedaries. The top associated SNPs
were related to pin width, whither to pin length, height at whither, muzzle girth, and
tail length. Interestingly, the results highlight the association between whither height,
muzzle circumference, tail length, whither to pin length. The identified candidate genes
were associated with growth, body size, and immune system in other species.
Conclusions: We identified three key hub genes in the gene network analysis including ACTB, SOCS1 and ARFGEF1. In the central position of gene network, ACTB was
detected as the most important gene related to muscle function. With this initial GWAS using GBS on dromedary camels for morphometric traits, we show that this
SNP panel can be effective for genetic evaluation of growth in dromedaries. However, we suggest a higher-density SNP array may greatly improve the reliability of the results
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