Interval mapping of growth in divergent swine cross

A genomic scan of 18 swine autosomal chromosomes was constructed with 119 polymorphic microsatellite (ms) markers to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for 11 growth traits in the University of Illinois Meishan x Yorkshire Swine Resource Family. A significant QTL effect was found for post-weaning average daily gain (ADG) between 5.5 and 56 kg of body weight that mapped between markers SW373 and SW1301 near the telomere of Chromosome (Chr) 1 q (SSC1). This QTL effect had a nominal (pointwise) p-value of 0.000007, a genome wide p-value of 0.012, and accounted for 26% of the F-2 phenotypic variance. The same chromosome region also had significant effects on ADG between birth and 56 kg body weight (p-value =.000227), and on ADG between 35 and 56 kg (p-value =.00077). These observations suggest that a significant QTL for post-weaning growth resides on SSC1.