Genome-wide association identifies genomic regions influencing fillet color in Northwest Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar Linnaeus 1758).

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is an important source of food globally; however, fillet color can significantly affect consumer purchasing, leading to potential food waste. Fish diets can be supplemented with astaxanthin to increase the organic pigment, carotenoid, responsible for flesh coloration; however, there is variation in the amount of overall fillet coloration in response to feeding astaxanthin. The uptake of this pigment is influenced by the environment and genetics and has been shown to be heritable. Therefore, we set out to determine the genomic associations of two separate year classes of farmed North American Atlantic salmon with measured Minolta Chroma Meter (lightness, redness, and yellowness) and SalmoFan phenotypic traits. Using ASReml-R genome-wide association, two genetic markers on chromosome 26 were significantly associated with almost all color traits, and these two markers explained between 6.0% and 12.5% of the variances. The genomic region on chromosome 26 was importantly found to be associated with the beta-carotene oxygenase 1 (bco1) gene, which is essential in the conversion of beta-carotenoids to vitamin A, implying that this gene may also play an important role in flesh coloration in North American Atlantic salmon. Additionally, there were several genomic regions significantly associated with color traits, in which the accompanying genes had functions in line with thermogenesis, immune function, and pathogenic responses. Understanding how environmental and genetic factors work together to affect fillet quality traits will help inform genetic improvement.

Common variant rs6564851 near the beta-carotene oxygenase 1 gene is associated with plasma triglycerides levels in middle-aged Mexican men adults.

Dyslipidemias have been linked to an increased risk of adverse health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome. Recent reports have associated the beta-carotene oxygenase 1 (BCO1) gene with lipid metabolism, mainly reducing total cholesterol and increasing high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations. The hypothesis of this study was that the variant rs6564851 near the BCO1 gene is associated positively with the lipid profile in middle-aged Mexican adults. This study included 1441 Mexicans older than 40 years of age from the Health Workers Cohort Study (HWCS). Genotyping was conducted using a predesigned TaqMan assay. Lipid profile was measured with standardized procedures. Our results showed that the men carrying at least 1 T allele had higher serum triglyceride concentrations than GG homozygous (GG: 146.5 mg/dL; GT: 175 mg/dL; and TT: 184 mg/dL; P = .008). The variant rs6564851 showed a risk associated with the serum triglyceride concentrations(odds ratio [OR], 2.77; P = .002) only in the male group. However, we did not observe significant differences in the serum total cholesterol, HDL-C, and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol concentrations in both sexes. Our study provides evidence that the variant rs6564851 is negatively associated with the triglyceride concentrations in middle-aged Mexican male adults in the HWCS. This knowledge can be the basis for developing effective nutritional strategies according to sex and the genetic variants present in an individual. Further studies in independent populations are required to validate these findings and determine the mechanism of the association sex dependent.