›› 2015, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (4): 997-1003.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2015.04.034

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Genetic Studies on Age at the First Egg in Chicken: A Review

GUO Jun, WANG Ke-hua   

  1. Institute of Poultry Science, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Yangzhou 225125, China
  • Received:2014-09-16 Online:2015-04-20 Published:2015-05-05

Abstract: Age at the first egg (AFE) remained to be an important economic implication because the earlier onset of sexual maturity meaned the more number of egg production. There were many articles concerning the genetic basis on AFE, based on inheritance, heritability and genetic markers with sibling design, GWAS and QTL mapping. However, few review summarized the previous study. Most studies have concluded that medium heritability, ranged between 0.24 and 0.55, had exists for effective selection on AFE. High CV in AFE meaned uniformity would be selected in the future. It had been reported that polymorphisms of candidate genes, such as genes involved in hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary axis regulation, were associated with AFE. However, many of these results had needed further confirmations. Based on the results from genome-wide linkage analyses on different subject populations, 11 loci located on 9 chromosomes were reported to harbor AFE genes in chicken. It's expected that the dissections in genetic architecture of AFE would provide a basis on selection and genetic improvement on local breed.

Key words: age at the first egg; genetic architecture; candidate genes; QTL; chicken

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