Functional signals and hologenomic selection for P utilisation and related efficiency traits in two contrasting high-yielding laying hen strains

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In a recent study, we conducted quantitative-genetic analyses of Phosphor (P) utilization in an F2 cross experimental design consisting of about 900 Japanese quails. We estimated a narrow sense heritability of 14 percent. The individuals were genotyped with 4K SNP markers and lumen samples from the ileum were collected for microbiota analyses. The overall aim of the present project is to obtain a better understanding of the P utilization observed in the study design considering the quail genetics, the quail ileum microbiota and the interplay between these two components. In particular, we aim to test the following hypotheses. (i) Variation of P utilization in quails is a heritable trait, which is controlled by few quail QTL with large effects. (ii) Variation of P utilization is partly driven by the microbial community in the ileum of the quail. (iii) The microbial community in the ileum is a heritable host trait that can be used for breeding individuals with improved P utilization. These hypotheses will be analyzed by using genomic and microbial mixed linear models, which include QTL linkage and association mapping, genomic and microbial variance component estimation, and microbial prediction of P-Utilization. The microbiota will be analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing technology. The results will be interpreted with respect to improve P utilization in poultry by targeted breeding, which acts either on the level of the observed P utilization of the host, or on the host microbiome in order to select for an optimized microbiota with respect to P utilization, or on both. A wider interpretation, which uses bioinformatics tools and considers the results from other projects of this Research Unit into account, will be done in another Research Unit project.