Combined multivariate factor analysis and GWAS for milk fatty acids trait in Comisana sheep breed

Sheep milk is important for the economy of Mediterranean countries and a large part of its production is reserved for traditional cheese making.[1] Although is well known that milk fat content is significantly influenced by both environmental and genetic factors, there is no relevant literature reporting genetic or genomic parameters influencing it in sheep populations.[2] The use of genome-wide SNP panels represents the gold standard method to investigate the genetic architecture of complex traits in livestock, such as milk fat composition.[3] Nevertheless, assessing the genetic basis of fatty acid (FA) profile variability is not an easy task and can lead to outcomes that are difficult to interpret, as these are multiple correlated traits. The dashed line indicates the Bonferroni-corrected genome-wide significance threshold at P-value 0.05. gl To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study combining MFA and GWAS approaches to investigate the genetics underlying ovine milk FA profiles.