Large-effect loci affect survival in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) infected with a transmissible cancer.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the genetic architecture of complex phenotypes is a central goal of modern biology, particularly for disease-related traits. Genome-wide association methods are a classical approach for identifying the genomic basis of variation in disease phenotypes, but such analyses are particularly challenging in natural populations due to sample size difficulties. Extensive mark-recapture data, strong linkage disequilibrium and a lethal transmissible cancer make the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) an ideal model for such an association study. We used a RAD-capture approach to genotype 624 devils at ~16,000 loci and then used association analyses to assess the heritability of three cancer-related phenotypes: infection case-control (where cases were infected devils and controls were d

SUBMITTER: Margres MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6759049 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature