Candidate genes associated with economically important traits in dairy goats

Abstract

Goats are important livestock species worldwide, due to their valuable commodities, including meat, milk, dairy products, fleece, and skin. Most of the economically important traits in dairy goats are complex quantitative traits, greatly influenced by polygenes and environmental factors. Hence, direct selection of these traits based on phenotypic data will not resulted a remarkable improvements in phenotypes of the traits, rather it needs to understand and include the molecular mechanisms controlling the traits in dairy goat breeding and trait selection. Consequently, following the advancement of molecular genetics and genotyping techniques, great quantities of candidate genes associated with economically important traits in different dairy goat breeds have been investigated by several scholars in the world. This review quantify candidate genes associated with the major economically important traits, including milk production, milk composition, reproduction, body conformation, environmental adaptations, and disease resistance traits in dairy goats by searching the available literature from different databases. As evidenced from literature, candidate genes have different functions on economically important traits, including regulating gene expression, protein functions, metabolism, physiological process, and expression of phenotype of the traits in dairy goats. The search of candidate genes associated with economically important traits, recognizing their genomic region, and physiological functions help breeders to identify marker-genes linked with economic traits used to attain faster selection response in dairy goat breeding. Therefore, quantifying candidate genes and their association with economically important traits will enhance the genetic improvement of dairy goats, which will improve nutritional security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Keywords:

• Candidate genes
• dairy goats
• economic traits
• physiological functions

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Goat production is an acceptable business worldwide from the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental perspectives. Majority of the world goats are produced in tropical countries where many peoples have low per capita income and suffering by food shortage and malnutrition. In this areas, goats’ milk is a valuable part of the human diet sustaining life. Goats’ milk is also valued in developed countries, due to its nutritive and medicinal values. For enhanced milk production, genetics of the dairy goat breeds should be improved. But, economically important traits in dairy goats are multifaceted traits, traits influenced by polygenes and environmental factors, which makes difficult direct selection of the traits. Consequently, several scholars have been identified candidate genes associated with economically important traits in different dairy goat breeds. Hence, this review was intended to document candidate genes associated with economic traits in dairy goats, which would assist dairy goat breeding worldwide.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

There was no any funding for this work.

Notes on contributors

Mezgebu Getaneh

Mezgebu Getaneh is a Ph.D. student in the department of Animal Genetics and Breeding at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia

Kefyalew Alemayehu is a professor of Animal Genetics and Breeding at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia