Parental imprinting effects on milk yield and composition traits in Murciano-Granadina goats
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Parental imprinting, a parent-of-origin effect usually ignored in genetic evaluations, could influence milk yield and composition traits as well as the accuracy of breeding values. This study therefore examined its impact on these traits over the first three lactations in Murciano-Granadina goats. The dataset consisted of pedigree and test-day records for milk yield and composition traits collected during the first three lactations of Murciano-Granadina goats between 2017 and 2024 at a private dairy farm in Ghale-Ganj, south of Kerman Province, Iran. The traits analyzed in the i th lactation period (i = 1-3) were total milk yield (MYi), average fat percentage (FPi), average protein percentage (PPi), and average somatic cell score (SCSi), using a database consisting of 1,033 to 6,696 records, depending on the trait. We compared four animal models, including or excluding imprinting (maternal and paternal) effects, using Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and average model accuracy. Model comparisons showed that parental imprinting effects were important across MY1, MY2, FP1, and FP2. Specifically, a model with direct additive and paternal imprinting effects best fit MY1 and FP1, whereas a model incorporating direct additive, paternal, and maternal imprinting best fit MY2. For these traits, the models including imprinting effects produced higher accuracies of predicted breeding values compared with models excluding imprinting effects, increasing from 3% for MY1 to 6% for MY2. Paternal imprinting effects accounted for 2% of the phenotypic variance for MY2 to 10% of the phenotypic variance for FP2. Under the best-fitting models, direct heritability ranged from low to moderate estimates, from 0.05 for FP2 to 0.34 for PP2. Genetic correlations were generally stronger than phenotypic, residual, and imprinting correlations, with milk-yield traits showing the highest genetic correlations. These findings highlight the relevance of parental imprinting in genetic evaluations of MY1, MY2, FP1, and FP2 traits and underscore the importance of model choice based on AIC and average accuracy of models for accurate selection decisions in the studied population of the Murciano-Granadina goat breed.
Source: Veterinary and Animal Science
Institutions: University of Jiroft, Bu-Ali Sina University
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,780
OpenAlex ID: W7223696306