A genome-wide association study in a large F2-cross of laying hens reveals novel genomic regions associated with feather pecking and aggressive pecking behavior

BACKGROUND: Feather pecking and aggressive pecking in laying hens are serious economic and welfare issues. In spite of extensive research on feather pecking during the last decades, the motivation for this behavior is still not clear. A small to moderate heritability has frequently been reported for these traits. Recently, we identified several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with feather pecking by mapping selection signatures in two divergent feather pecking lines. Here, we performed a genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) for feather pecking and aggressive pecking behavior, then combined the results with those from the recent selection signature experiment, and linked them to those obtained from a differential gene expression study. METHODS: A large F2 cross of 960 F2 hens was generated using the divergent lines as founders. Hens were phenotyped for feather pecks delivered (FPD), aggressive pecks delivered (APD), and aggressive pecks received (APR). Individuals were genotyped with the Illumina 60K chicken Infinium iSelect chip. After data filtering, 29,376 SNPs remained for analyses. Single-marker GWAS was performed using a Poisson model. The results were combined with those from the selection signature experiment using Fisher’s combined probability test. RESULTS: Numerous significant SNPs were identified for all traits but with low false discovery rates. Nearly all significant SNPs were located in clusters that spanned a maximum of 3 Mb and included at least two significant SNPs. For FPD, four clusters were identified, which increased to 13 based on the meta-analysis (FPD(meta)). Seven clusters were identified for APD and three for APR. Eight genes (of the 750 investigated genes located in the FPD(meta) clusters) were significantly differentially-expressed in the brain of hens from both lines. One gene, SLC12A9, and the positional candidate gene for APD, GNG2, may be linked to the monomanine signaling pathway, which is involved in feather pecking and aggressive behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Combining the results from the GWAS with those of the selection signature experiment substantially increased the statistical power. The behavioral traits were controlled by many genes with small effects and no single SNP had effects large enough to justify its use in marker-assisted selection. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12711-017-0287-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.