Potentials of biodiversity in chickens

Abstract

Within the framework of the Synbreed project, a large panel of chicken breeds were phenotypically characterized encompassing both categorical traits and body measurements. This "Synbreed Chicken Biodiversity Panel (SCBP)" comprises more than 2400 individuals from 111 diverse breeds and colour variants of various geographical origins including two wild jungle fowl populations and commercial purebred lines. In this study, data of 1967 individuals genotyped at more than 445'000 SNP loci using the Affymetrix 600k Axiom chicken SNP Array were available. Genome wide association analyses clearly detected genomic regions of known mutations for yellow skin colour and rose-comb, respectively. In addition, a cluster analysis with a subset of 89 populations using an extract of autosomal SNPs variable in the wild ancestor Red Jungle Fowl was conducted to visualize the relationship between breeds. Results showed that the majority of breeds formed clusters according to their supposed relationships. The SCBP represents a valuable resource for high resolution analysis of genetic diversity and mapping of genomic regions underlying phenotypic variability.