A review on prolificacy genes in sheep

Contents Ovulation rate and litter size are important reproduction traits in sheep and are of high economic value. Reproduction traits typically have low to medium heritabilities and do not exhibit a noticeable response to phenotypic selection. Therefore, inclusion of genetic information of the gene...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reproduction in domestic animals 2016-10, Vol.51 (5), p.631-637
Main Authors: Abdoli, R, Zamani, P, Mirhoseini, SZ, Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh, N, Nadri, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Animals
Breeding
Epistasis
Female
Fertility
Gene Expression Regulation - physiology
Genes
Genetic control
Genetic diversity
Genetic improvement
Hogs
Litter size
Litter Size - genetics
Mutation
Ovis aries
Ovulation
Polygenic inheritance
Reproduction
Sheep
Sheep - genetics
Sheep - physiology
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Summary:Contents Ovulation rate and litter size are important reproduction traits in sheep and are of high economic value. Reproduction traits typically have low to medium heritabilities and do not exhibit a noticeable response to phenotypic selection. Therefore, inclusion of genetic information of the genes associated with reproductive ability could efficiently enhance the selection response. The most important major genes affecting prolificacy and their genetic diversities in different sheep breeds were reviewed. Different causative mutations with major effects on reproductive traits including ovulation rate and litter size have been found in various sheep breeds around the world. A general overview of the studies on main prolificacy genes showed that some alleles may express different phenotypic effects in different breeds, and thus, further studies on epistatic effects are necessary for more understanding of genetic control of reproductivity in sheep. Regarding the polygenic control of fertility traits, application of new high‐throughput technologies to find new variants is essential for future studies. Moreover, genomewide association studies and genomic best linear unbiased predictions of breeding values are likely to be effective tools for genetic improvement of sheep reproductive performance traits.
ISSN:0936-6768
1439-0531
DOI:10.1111/rda.12733