Genetic analysis of epistatic effects between <I>ApoB</I> and <I>UCP</I> on abdominal fat trait in chicken

It has been found that epistasis for selective response plays an indispensible role in animal genetics and breeding. In this study, the polymorphisms of T123G in apoliprotein B (ApoB) and C1197A in uncoupling protein (UCP) among individuals from the 8th to the 10th generation populations of the Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content (NEAUHFL) were detected, and genetic analysis of the epistatic effects between the two SNPs on abdominal fat percentage (AFP) was performed using Natural and Orthogonal InterActions (NOIA) model. According to these assays, we concluded that at least one out of four epistatic components between these two SNPs was significantly associated with AFP (Plt;0.05) in fat lines from the 8th to the 10th generations of NEAUHFL; on the contrary, none was significantly associated with AFP (P>0.05) in lean lines. Our results suggested that epistatic interactions among QTLs and functional SNPs in candidate genes affecting fat traits might lead to differences in growth patterns of fat traits between lean and fat chicken lines.