Heterogeneity of genetic architecture of body size traits in a free-living population.

ABSTRACT: Knowledge of the underlying genetic architecture of quantitative traits could aid in understanding how they evolve. In wild populations, it is still largely unknown whether complex traits are polygenic or influenced by few loci with major effect, due to often small sample sizes and low resolution of marker panels. Here, we examine the genetic architecture of five adult body size traits in a free-living population of Soay sheep on St Kilda using 37 037 polymorphic SNPs. Two traits (jaw and weight) show classical signs of a polygenic trait: the proportion of variance explained by a chromosome was proportional to its length, multiple chromosomes and genomic regions explained significant amounts of phenotypic variance, but no SNPs were associated with trait variance when using GWAS. In compari

SUBMITTER: Berenos C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4405094 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature