Mature body size is genetically correlated with growth rate, an important economic trait in the sheep industry. Mature body size has been studied extensively in humans as well as cattle and other domestic animal populations but not in sheep. Six‐hundred and sixteen ewes, across 22 breeds, were measured for 28 linear measurements representing various skeletal parts. PCA from these measures generated principal components 1 and 2 which represented 66 and 7% of the phenotypic variation respectively. Two‐hundred and twenty sheep were genotyped on the Illumina Ovine HD beadchip for a GWAS investigating mature body size and linear body measurements. Forty‐six (Bonferroni P < 0.05) SNP associations across 14 chromosomes were identified utilizing principal component 1, representing overall body size, revealing mature body size to have fewer loci of large effect than other domestic species such as dogs and horses. Genome‐wide associations for individual linear measures identified major quantitative trait loci for withers height and ear length. Withers height was associated (Bonferroni P < 0.05) with 12 SNPs across six chromosomes whereas ear length was associated with a single locus on chromosome 3, containing MSRB3. This analysis identified several loci known to be associated with mature body size in other species such as NCAPG, LCORL, and HMGA2. Mature body size is more polygenic in sheep than other domesticated species, making the development of genomic selection for the trait the most efficient option for maintaining or reducing mature body size in sheep.

中文翻译：

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所有绵羊和大小：对绵羊品种成熟体型的基因调查揭示了多基因性质

成熟的体型与生长速度有遗传相关性，这是养羊业的一个重要经济特征。成熟的体型已在人类以及牛和其他家畜种群中进行了广泛的研究，但在绵羊中却没有。对 22 个品种的 616 只母羊进行了 28 次线性测量，代表不同的骨骼部分。来自这些测量的 PCA 生成主成分 1 和 2，它们分别代表表型变异的 66% 和 7%。222 只绵羊在 Illumina Ovine HD 珠芯片上进行了基因分型，用于 GWAS 研究成熟体型和线性体测量。四十六（Bonferroni P < 0.05) 使用代表整体体型的主成分 1 鉴定了 14 条染色体上的 SNP 关联，表明成熟体型比狗和马等其他家养物种具有更少的大效应位点。单个线性测量的全基因组关联确定了马肩隆高度和耳朵长度的主要数量性状基因座。威瑟斯身高与 6 条染色体上的 12 个 SNP 相关（Bonferroni P  < 0.05），而耳朵长度与 3 号染色体上的单个基因座相关，包含MSRB3。该分析确定了几个已知与其他物种成熟体型相关的基因座，例如NCAPG、LCORL和HMGA2. 与其他驯养物种相比，绵羊的成熟体型更具多基因性，这使得针对该性状进行基因组选择的开发成为维持或减少绵羊成熟体型的最有效选择。