A genome scan of recent positive selection signatures in three sheep populations

Domesticated sheep have been exposed to artificial selection for the production of fiber, meat, and milk as well as to natural selection. Such selections are likely to have imposed distinctive selection signatures on the sheep genome. Therefore, detecting selection signatures across the genome may help elucidate mechanisms of selection and pinpoint candidate genes of interest for further investigation. Here, detection of selection signatures was conducted in three sheep breeds, Sunite （n=66）, German Mutton （n=159）, and Dorper （n=93）, using the Illumina OvineSNP50 Genotyping BeadChip array. Each animal provided genotype information for 43 273 autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms （SNPs）. We adopted two complementary haplotype-based statistics of relative extended haplotype homozygosity （REHH） and the cross-popu- lation extended haplotype homozygosity （XP-EHH） tests. In total, 707,755, and 438 genomic regions subjected to positive selection were identified in Sunite, German Mutton, and Dorper sheep, respectively, and 42 of these regions were detected using both REHH and XP-EHH analyses. These genomic regions harbored many important genes, which were enriched in gene ontology terms involved in muscle development, growth, and fat metabolism. Fourteen of these genomic regions overlapped with those identified in our previous genome-wide association studies, further indicating that these genes under positive selection may underlie growth developmental traits. These findings contribute to the identification of candidate genes of interest and aid in understanding the evolutionary and biological mechanisms for controlling complex traits in Chinese and western sheep.