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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Livestock Genomics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1376883

A high-density genome-wide approach reveals novel genetic markers linked to small ruminant lentivirus susceptibility in sheep

Provisionally accepted
Silvia Riggio Silvia Riggio 1Marco Tolone Marco Tolone 2Gianluca Sottile Gianluca Sottile 3Serena Tumino Serena Tumino 4Baldassare Portolano Baldassare Portolano 1Anna Maria Sutera Anna Maria Sutera 2Maria Teresa Sardina Maria Teresa Sardina 1Alberto Cesarani Alberto Cesarani 5,6Salvatore Mastrangelo Salvatore Mastrangelo 1*
  • 1 Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
  • 2 Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, farmaceutiche ed ambientali, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
  • 3 Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Aziendali e Statistiche, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
  • 4 Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Universitry of Catania, Catania, Italy
  • 5 Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
  • 6 Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA, Athens, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Visna/Maedi virus (VMV) is lentiviral disease of sheep responsible for severe production losses. Multiple genomic regions associated with infection were reported indicating genetic complexity. In this study, a combined genome-wide approach using a high-density SNP array has been performed, comparing VMV-infected (n=78) and non-infected (n=66) individuals of the Valle del Belice breed. The serological tests showed a seroprevalence of 26%. The comparison among results from different approaches (GWAS, Fisher's exact test and the FST analysis) revealed two association signals: on OAR03 close to the GRIN2B gene and on OAR05 close to the TMEM232 gene. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no previous association between these genes and lentiviral infection in any species. The GRIN2B gene plays a role in pain response, synaptic transmission, and receptor clustering, while TMEM232 is involved in the development of immune-related disorders. The results highlighted new aspects of the genetic complexity related to the resistance/susceptibility to VMV in sheep, confirming that studies on different breeds can lead to different results. The ideal approach for validation of the markers identified in our study is to use samples from a population independent from the discovery population with the same phenotype used in the discovery stage.

    Keywords: Small ruminant lentiviruses, Local sheep, genome-wide approaches, high density array, candidate genes

    Received: 26 Jan 2024; Accepted: 10 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Riggio, Tolone, Sottile, Tumino, Portolano, Sutera, Sardina, Cesarani and Mastrangelo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Salvatore Mastrangelo, Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University of Palermo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

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