Genetics, Vol. 164, 621-627, June 2003, Copyright © 2003

Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci for Production Traits in Commercial Pig Populations

G. J. Evansa, E. Giuffrab, A. Sanchezc, S. Kerjeb, G. Davalosc, O. Vidalc, S. Illánd, J. L. Noguerae, L. Varonae, I. Velanderf, O. I. Southwooda, D.-J. de Koningg, C. S. Haleyg, G. S. Plastowa, and L. Anderssonb
a Sygen International PLC, University of Cambridge, Department of Pathology, Cambridge CB2 1QP, United Kingdom,
b Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden,
c Department Ciència Animal i dels Aliments, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Catalunya, Spain,
d Department Produccions Porcina, Cooperativa Agricola y Ganadera de Lleida, COPAGA, Poligono Industrial "El Segre," Lleida, 25080 Catalunya, Spain,
e Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, Area de Producciòn Animal, Centro UdL-IRTA, Lleida, 25198 Catalunya, Spain,
f Quality Genetics, S-244 24 Kaevlinge, Sweden
g Roslin Institute-RIO, Division of Genetics and Biometry, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS, United Kingdom

Corresponding author: L. Andersson, SLU, Box 597, S-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden., leif.andersson{at}bmc.uu.se (E-mail)

Communicating editor: J. B. WALSH

The aim of this study was to investigate methods for detecting QTL in outbred commercial pig populations. Several QTL for back fat and growth rate, previously detected in experimental resource populations, were examined for segregation in 10 different populations. Two hundred trait-by-population-by-chromosome tests were performed, resulting in 20 tests being significant at the 5% level. In addition, 53 QTL tests for 11 meat quality traits were declared significant, using a subset of the populations. These results show that a considerable amount of phenotypic variance observed in these populations can be explained by major alleles segregating at several of the loci described. Thus, despite a relatively strong selection pressure for growth and back fat traits in these populations, these alleles have not yet reached fixation. The approaches used here demonstrate that it is possible to verify segregation of QTL in commercial populations by limited genotyping of a selection of informative animals. Such verified QTL may be directly exploited in marker-assisted selection (MAS) programs in commercial populations and their molecular basis may be revealed by positional candidate cloning.




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