A genome wide association study for the number of animals born dead in domestic pigs

BACKGROUND: The number of animals born dead, which includes the number of mummified (NM) and stillborn (NS) animals, is the most important trait to directly quantify the reproductive loss in domestic pigs. In this study, 282 Landrace sows and 250 Large White sows were genotyped by sequencing (GBS). A total of 816 and 1068 litter records for NM and NS were collected from them. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to reveal the genetic difference between NM and NS. RESULTS: A total of 248 and 10 genome-wide significant SNPs were detected for NM and NS across numerous parities in Landrace pigs. The corresponding numbers for Large White pigs were 175 and 6, respectively. All of the detected SNPs were parity specific for both NM and NS in two breeds. Based on significant SNPs, in total 242 (146 for Landrace pig, 96 for Large White pig) and 10 significant chromosome regions (8 for Landrace pigs, 2 for Large White pigs) were found for NM and NS, respectively. Among them, 237 (142 for Landrace pig, 95 for Large White pig) and 8 significant chromosome regions (6 for Landrace pigs, 2 for Large White pigs) for NM and NS were not reported in previous studies. A list of candidate genes at the identified loci was proposed, including HMGB1, SOX5, KCNJ8, ABCC9 and YY1 for NM, ASTN1 for NS. CONCLUSION: This is the first time when GBS data was used to identify genetic regions affecting NM and NS in Landrace and Large White pigs. Many identified informative SNPs and candidate genes advance our understanding of the genetic architecture of NM and NS in pigs. However, further studies are needed to validate using larger populations with more breeds. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12863-018-0692-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.