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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (1): 40-51.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.20-229

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress on genetic mapping and genetic mechanism of cattle and sheep horns

Xiaohong He, Lin Jiang, Yabin Pu, Qianjun Zhao, Yuehui Ma()   

  1. Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2020-07-21 Revised:2020-11-19 Online:2021-01-20 Published:2021-01-07
  • Contact: Ma Yuehui E-mail:yuehui.ma@263.net
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Nos(31402033);Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Nos(U1603232);the Special Fund for Basic Scienti?c Research of Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences funding No(2017ywf-zd-11);tthe earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System No(CARS-40-01);the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of China No(ASTIP-IAS01)

Abstract:

Horns are cranial appendages, which are unique in ruminants. Cattle (Bos taurus) and sheep (Ovis aries) cranial appendages exhibit various forms of morphology, including wild-type two-horn phenotype, polled phenotype and scur phenotype. These animals provide an ideal model for studies on the underlying relationship between quality and quantitative traits of cattle and sheep horn and the molecular mechanisms of horn phenotype as a polygenic regulation for quality traits. In recent years, some research progresses of cattle and sheep horns are successively reported, which helps us better understand the evolutionary origin of new organ, the effects of natural selection, sex selection and artificial selection on horn phenotypes. In this review, we introduce in details the recent advances on the research of horn traits in cattle and sheep, and summarize the genetic mapping of multi-horned phenotypes, the genetic mapping of polled locus, and studies on scur phenotype. Moreover, we discuss potential problems in such research, thereby providing a reference for investigation on the genetic mechanisms of horn traits in ruminants.

Key words: sheep, cranial appendages, horn trait, genetic mechanism, polled phenotype, multi-horned phenotype