Research Note: Association of LEPR gene polymorphism with growth and carcass traits in Savimalt and French Giant meat-type quails.

The leptin receptor (LEPR) gene is a member of the class I cytokine receptor family, which plays an important role in weight regulation, fat accumulation and neuroendocrine function in animals. This study aimed to explore the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the LEPR gene with growth and carcass traits in meat-type quail by PCR amplification and DNA direct sequencing. In this study, genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples of 36 female Savimalt (SV) quails and 49 female French Giant (FG) quails. Growth traits (measured at 3 or 5 wk) and carcass traits (measured at 5 wk) were used for LEPR gene association analysis. The results showed the existence of 9 SNPs (T81C, G90T, C187A, A191G, A219G, G258A, C286T, G346A, and G373A) of the LEPR gene in the 2 quail strains. The statistical analyses indicated that these SNPs of LEPR gene was significantly associated with shank circumference (SC), shank length (SL), breastbone length (BBL), heart rate (HR), and whole net carcass rate (WNCR) of FG (P < 0.05); chest width (CW), body length (BL), leg muscle rate (LMR), whole net carcass rate (WNCR), and heart rate (HR) of SV (P < 0.05). While haplotypes showed significant effect on SL, BBL, heart weight (HW), WNCR, and HR of FG (P < 0.05). Therefore, the LEPR gene may serve as a molecular genetic marker for improving growth and carcass traits in quails.

Exploring the Impact of Insertion/Deletion in FTO and PLIN1 Genes on Morphometric Traits in Sheep.

This study aimed to identify InDels from the FTO and PLIN1 genes and to analyze their association with morphometric traits in Hu sheep (HS), Dupor sheep (DS), and Small Tail Han sheep (STHS). The FTO and PLIN1 genes were genotyped using the insertion/deletion (InDel) method. A one-way ANOVA with SPSS 26.0 software (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to assess the effect of the InDel FTO and PLIN1 genes on morphometric traits. The results revealed significant associations between certain InDels and the morphometric traits in different breeds of sheep. Specifically, FTO-2 was significantly associated with cannon circumference (CaC) in HS rams and body height (BoH) in HS ewes (p < 0.05). FTO-2 was also significantly associated with chest width (ChW), CaC, head length (HeL), and coccyx length (CoL) in the STHS breed (p < 0.05). FTO-3 showed significant associations with BoH in HS rams and BoH, back height (BaH), ChW, and chest depth (ChD) in HS ewes (p < 0.05). FTO-3 was also significantly associated with ChW in the DS and STHS breeds (p < 0.05). FTO-5 was significantly associated with body weight (BoW) in the DS breed and BoH in the STHS breed (p < 0.05). Furthermore, PLIN1 was significantly related to BoW in the DS breed and was significantly associated with CoL and forehead width (FoW) in the STHS breed (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the study suggested that InDels in the FTO and PLIN1 genes could provide practical information to improve morphometric traits in sheep breeding.

Research Note: Association of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor gene polymorphism with production performance in Savimalt and French Giant meat-type quails.

This study aimed to investigate the association of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with growth traits and carcass traits of quail by PCR amplification and direct sequencing technology. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples collected from 49 female French Giant (FG) quails and 36 female Savimalt (SV) quails as part of this study. Growth traits and carcass traits were measured and assessed for IGF-1R gene analysis in the 2 meat-type quail strains. The results showed that 2 SNPs (A57G and A72T) of the IGF-1R gene were detected in the 2 quail strains. The A57G (P = 0.002) and A72T (P = 0.026) were significantly associated with breastbone length (BBL) in FG. Whereas A57G was significantly associated with chest weight (CW, P = 0.004), BBL (P = 0.009), and body length (BL, P = 0.009) in SV, while A72T was significantly associated with BBL (P = 0.014) and BL (P = 0.028) in SV. Haplotypes based on these 2 SNPs showed significant effects on BBL in FG strain (P = 0.000), and they also had significant effects on CW (P = 0.007), BBL (P = 0.004), and BL (P = 0.001) in SV strain. Additionally, A57G was significantly associated with liver rate (LR) in FG strain (P = 0.017). A72T showed significant associations with dressed carcass weight (DCW, P = 0.048) and breast muscle weight (BMW, P = 0.018) in FG strain. A57G was significantly associated with DCW (P = 0.048), whole net carcass weight (WNCW, P = 0.048), BMW (P = 0.036), and liver muscle rate (LMR, P = 0.003) in SV strain. Haplotypes also displayed significant effects on BMW (P = 0.029) and LMR (P = 0.010) in FG strain. These findings indicated that the IGF-1R gene could serve as a valuable molecular genetic marker for enhancing growth traits and carcass traits in meat-type quails.

Research Note: Association of VIPR-1 gene polymorphism with growth traits in meat type Japanese quail (Coturnix Japonica).

This study aimed to analyze the polymorphism of the vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor-1 (VIPR-1) gene and its association with growth traits in quail using the PCR-RFLP and sequencing techniques. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples of 36 female Savimalt (SV) quails and 49 female French Giant (FG) quails. Growth traits were measured and used for VIPR-1 gene analysis, as body weight (BW), tibia length (TL), chest width (CW), chest depth (CD), sternum length (SL), body length (BL), and tibia circumference (TC). The results showed that 2 SNPs (BsrD I and HpyCH4 IV) were detected in exon 4 to 5 and exon 6 to 7 of the VIPR-1 gene, respectively. The results of association showed that the BsrD I site was not significantly associated with growth traits at 3 or 5 wk of age in the SV strain (P < 0.05), while the BsrD I site was significantly associated with BL at 3 or 5 wk of age in FG (P < 0.05). The HpyCH4 IV site was significantly associated with TL, CW, CD, SL, and BL at 3 wk of age in the SV strain (P < 0.05), while the HpyCH4 IV site was significantly correlated with BW, CW, SL, and BL at 5 wk of age in SV (P < 0.05). The HpyCH4 IV site was significantly associated with TL and TC at 3 wk of age in FG (P < 0.05), while the HpyCH4 IV site was significantly associated with TC at 5 wk of age in FG (P < 0.05). Four haplotype combinations based on 2 SNPs showed significantly association with BW, CW, CD, SL, BL, and TC at 3 or 5 wk of age in SV (P < 0.05). There was not significant association between 3 haplotype combinations with growth trait at 3 or 5 wk of age in FG (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the VIPR-1 gene could be used as a molecular genetic marker to improve growth traits in quail.

Research Note: Association of IGF-1R gene polymorphism with egg quality and carcass traits of quail (Coturnix japonica).

Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) gene is the main effector of insulin-like growth factor (IGF), which plays an important role in growth, development and reproduction of the animal organism. This study aimed to investigate the association of IGF-1R gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with egg quality and carcass traits of quail by direct sequencing. In this study, genomic DNA was extracted from quail blood samples of 46 Chinese yellow (CY) quail, 49 Beijing white (BW) quail and 48 Korean (KO) quail strains. Egg quality and carcass traits were measured and used for IGF-1R gene analysis in 3 quail strains. The results showed that 2 SNPs (A57G and A72T) of the IGF-1R gene were detected in 3 quail strains. The A57G was significantly associated with yolk width (YWI) in BW strain (P < 0.05). Whereas A72T was significantly associated with egg shell thickness (EST) in BW strain (P < 0.05), and significantly associated with egg weight (EW), egg long (EL), and egg short (ES) in KO strain (P < 0.05). Haplotypes based on 2 SNPs showed significant effect on EST in 3 quail strains (P < 0.05), it also has a significant effect on EW in KO strain (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, A72T was significantly associated with liver weight (LW) and dressing percentage (DP) in 3 strains (P < 0.05). Haplotypes showed significant effect on LW (P < 0.05). Therefore, the IGF-1R gene may be a molecular genetic marker to improve egg quality and carcass traits in quails.

Research Note: Polymorphisms of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone gene and their association with growth traits in quail (Coturnix Coturnix).

This study aimed to identify polymorphisms of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) gene and their association with growth traits in quail by PCR and direct sequencing. Genomic DNA was extracted from quail blood samples of 36 from Savimalt (SV) and 49 from French Giant (FG). Growth traits were measured and used for candidate gene analysis, as body weight (BW), shank length (SL), chest width (CW), chest depth (CD), breastbone length (BBL), body length (BL), and shank circumference (SC). The results showed that a total of 20 SNPs were detected in GnRH gene, whereas 8 SNPs were significantly associated with growth traits (P < 0.05). The T215C, G279A, C458T, A520G, and C547G were significantly associated with SL at 3 wk of age in the FG strain, whereas A583T was significantly related to BBL and BL, and C591T was significantly related to SL, BBL, and BL, whereas A592G was significantly correlated with SL, CW, CD, BBL, and BL (P < 0.05). The 8 SNPs were significantly related to CW, CD, and BBL at 3 wk of age in the SV strain, whereas A583T, C591T, and A592G were significantly associated with BW (P < 0.05). The G279A showed significant correlations with SL at 5 wk of age in FG, whereas A583T showed significant associations with SC in FG, and C591T was significantly associated with BW and SC in FG, whereas A592T was significantly related to BW, SL, and CD in FG (P < 0.05). The T215C, G279A, C458T, A520G, and C547G were significantly correlated with BW, CW, BBL, and BL at 5 wk of age in SV, whereas A583T, C591T, and A592G were significantly related to BW, SL, CW, BBL, and BL (P < 0.05). Haplotypes based on 8 SNPs showed significant correlation with BW, SL, CW, CD, BBL, BL, and SC in FG (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the GnRH gene could be used as a molecular genetic marker to provide theoretical foundation to improve growth traits in quail.

Digital twin data-driven proactive job-shop scheduling strategy towards asymmetric manufacturing execution decision.

The information asymmetry phenomenon widely exists in production management decisions due to the latency of manufacturing data transmissions. Also, stochastic events on the physical production site will result in information asymmetry, which may lead to inconsistency between current execution and previous resource allocation plans. It is meaningful and important for developing an information model based on the Internet of Manufacturing Things to timely and actively adjust the scheduling strategy to meet the symmetry requirements of the production execution process. Based on the digital twin data collected from the workshop, a proactive job-shop scheduling strategy was discussed in this paper. Firstly, the mechanism for the influence of delayed local operations on makespan was deduced. Then, a framework for implementing the proactive job-shop scheduling strategy was proposed. Coordination point was used to determine the adjustment interval of local operations; right-shift rule with delay time constraints was used to adjust the unprocessed operation sequences on machines. Finally, the examples including 6*6 (6 jobs, 6 machines) and 20*40 (20 jobs, 40 machines) were presented to verify the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed method. It can be predicted that the proactive scheduling strategy provides the online decisions for the efficient and smooth execution of the digital twin-driven workshop production.

[Theory and application of marker-assisted introgression].

Marker-assisted introgression (MAI) is one of the major applications of molecular information in animal breeding aiming at introgression of one or more favorable genes from a line (donor) to another (recipient), while keeping the genetic background of the recipient as much as possible. It consists of three phases. Firstly, cross donor and recipient lines to produce F1; secondly, repeated backcross the F1 individuals and the subsequent progenies with the recipient to recover its genetic background; and thirdly, intercross the backcrossed progenies to fix the introgressed genes in the population. Many factors affect the efficiency of MAI, among which the methods of foreground and background selection are very critical.

Comparison of different foreground and background selection methods in marker-assisted introgression.

Three different methods for foreground selection and four different methods for background selection were compared in terms of the efficiency of marker-assisted introgression of a QTL allele from a donor line into a recipient line and also in terms of the recovery of the recipient genetic background. The results showed that for the introgression of a donor QTL allele, a direct selection on the QTL itself (when the QTL genotype can be directly identified) would ensure that the allele is successfully introgressed and rapidly fixed. However, when a direct selection on the QTL is not feasible, an indirect selection using two closely linked flanking markers can be used, which also shows similar results. For the recovery of the recipient genetic background, if the goal is to recover the whole genetic background of the recipient, genomic similarity selection or marker index selection would be the best choice: Only three generations of backcrosses were required to recover over 98% of the recipient genome. Whereas if the goal is to recover certain background traits of the recipient, MBLUP selection would give the best results, which achieved not only over 99% recovery of the recipient QTL alleles for the background traits after three generations of backcrosses, but also showed the best genetic improvement of these traits.

[Influence of maternal genetic effect on genetic parameter estimates of production traits of cashmere goat].

The derivative-free restricted maximum likelihood (DFREML) method was used to compare the differences of genetic parameter estimates of Inner Mongolian Cashmere Goats under two models, which differ in whether maternal genetic effect is taken into account. The differences between the two models were, tested by likelihood ratio test. The results show that maternal genetic effect highly affects live body weight and cashmere thickness while has no significant effect on raw cashmere weight, staple length, fibre diameter and fibre length.

[Comparison of different models for estimating genetic parameters of early growth traits in cashmere goat].

Using data on early growth traits (including birth weight, weaning weight, daily gain, and yearling weight) of cashmere goat from the Aerbasi White Cashmere Goat Breeding Farm in Inner Mongolia, four different animal models for estimating genetic parameters were compared. The four models differ in the way of handling maternal genetic effect and maternal environmental effect: in model I both maternal genetic and environmental effect were excluded, in model II only maternal genetic effect was included, in model III only maternal environmental effect was included, and in model IV both maternal genetic and environmental effect were included. The variance components under different models were estimated with derivative-free restricted maximum likelihood (DFREML) method using the MTDFREML program. The differences between different models were tested by likelihood ratio test. The results show that both maternal genetic and environmental effect have highly significant effect on birth weight. For weaning weight and daily gain the maternal genetic effect is not significant while the maternal environmental effect is highly significant; for yearling weight the maternal genetic effect is significant while the maternal environmental effect is not.