Genome-wide association studies of the fatty acid composition of Korean native chicken breast meat

Jean Pierre Munyaneza¹, Minjun Kim¹, Eunjin Cho², Aera Jang³, Hyo Jun Choo⁴^,^*, Jun Heon Lee¹^,²^,^**

¹1Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Daejeon 34134, Korea.

²2Department of Bio-AI Convergence, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Daejeon 34134, Korea.

³3Department of Applied Animal Science, College of Animal Life Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea, Chuncheon 24341, Korea.

⁴4Poultry Research Institute, National Institute of Animal Science, Pyeongchang 25342, Korea, Pyeongchang 25342, Korea.

^*Corresponding Author: Hyo Jun Choo, 4Poultry Research Institute, National Institute of Animal Science, Pyeongchang 25342, Korea, Pyeongchang 25342, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: hyojy@korea.kr.

^**Corresponding Author: Jun Heon Lee, 1Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Republic of. 2Department of Bio-AI Convergence, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Republic of. Phone: +82-42-821-7031. E-mail: junheon@cnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2024 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Dec 06, 2023; Revised: Feb 05, 2024; Accepted: Feb 17, 2024

Published Online: Feb 19, 2024

Abstract

The fatty acid composition of meat, which affects both its quality and the consumer’s health, is a complex trait influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Identification of the genes influencing the fatty acid composition of meat is very important for the selection and breeding of chickens with desirable and healthier fatty acid profiles. The objective of this study was to identify functional candidate genes for fatty acid profiles of the breast meat of the Korean native chicken-red-brown line (KNC-R) through genome-wide association studies. We genotyped 382 KNC-R chickens (190 males, 192 females) using the Illumina chicken 60K SNP chip (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA), and association tests were performed by mixed linear model in the Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA) software, based on mixed linear model analysis-leave-one-chromosome-out (MLMA-LOCO). We detected one SNP each on chromosomes 2 (rs13667281), 10 (rs14011157), and 22 (rs10731996) that were significantly (<italic>p</italic> < 0.05) associated with nervonic (C24:1), linoleic (C18:2), and eicosadienoic (C20:2) acids, respectively. We found 13 protein-coding genes related to lipid metabolism, including <italic>IGF2BP3</italic>, <italic>GPNMB</italic>, <italic>NPY</italic>, <italic>OSBPL3</italic>, <italic>IL6</italic>, <italic>NR2F2</italic>, <italic>GPAT4</italic>, <italic>NKX6-3</italic>, <italic>ANK1</italic>, <italic>SFRP1</italic>, <italic>ERLIN2</italic>, <italic>STAR</italic>, and <italic>PPP1R3E</italic>. Interestingly, two candidate genes (<italic>GPNMB</italic> and <italic>SFRP1</italic>) were reported to regulate the expression of genes known to be involved in fatty acid synthesis, such as the <italic>FASN</italic>, <italic>ACACA</italic>, <italic>ACLY</italic>, <italic>ELOVL</italic>, and <italic>SCD</italic> genes. Identification of functional candidate genes for fatty acid profiles might facilitate the selection and breeding of chickens with desirable and healthier fatty acids.

Keywords: Fatty acid; genome-wide association studies; Korean native chicken; meat flavor; meat quality