Whole-genome resequencing reveals loci under selection during chicken domestication

The domestication of the chicken over a period of several thousand years and its later specialization into meat producing (broiler) and egg producing (layer) lines is an informative model of domestication and phenotypic evolution. A study using massively parallel sequencing of domestic chicken and its wild ancestor, the red jungle fowl, reveals a number of 'selective sweeps', where benign genetic variations closely linked to a mutation that dramatically enhances survival increase in frequency relative to other alleles. Most striking of these — found in all domestic chickens — is one at a locus encoding thyroid stimulating hormone receptor, which has a key role in metabolism and vertebrate reproductive timing.…

• SF
  Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning
• SF
  Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas
• KO
  Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet
• UM
  Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science