A genetic variation map for chicken with 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms

Gane Ka-Shu Wong, Bin Liu, Jun Wang, Yong Zhang, Xu Yang, Zengjin Zhang, Qingshun Meng, Jun Zhou, Dawei Li, Jingjing Zhang, Peixiang Ni, Songgang Li, Longhua Ran, Heng Li, Jianguo Zhang, Ruiqiang Li, Shengting Li, Hongkun Zheng, Wei Lin, Guangyuan Li, Xiaoling Wang, Wenming Zhao, Jun Li, Chen Ye, Mingtao Dai, Jue Ruan, Yan Zhou, Yuanzhe Li, Ximiao He, Yunze Zhang, Jing Wang, Xiangang Huang, Wei Tong, Jie Chen, Jia Ye, Chen Chen, Ning Wei, Guoqing Li, Le Dong, Fengdi Lan, Yongqiao Sun, Zhenpeng Zhang, Zheng Yang, Yingpu Yu, Yanqing Huang, Dandan He, Yan Xi, Dong Wei, Qiuhui Qi, Wenjie Li, Jianping Shi, Miaoheng Wang, Fei Xie, Jianjun Wang, Xiaowei Zhang, Pei Wang, Yiqiang Zhao, Ning Li, Ning Yang, Wei Dong, Songnian Hu, Changqing Zeng, Weimou Zheng, Bailin Hao, LaDeana W. Hillier, Shiaw-Pyng Yang, Wesley C. Warren, Richard K. Wilson, Mikael Brandström, Hans Ellegren, Richard P. M. A. Crooijmans, Jan J. van der Poel, Henk Bovenhuis, Martien A. M. Groenen, Ivan Ovcharenko, Laurie Gordon, Lisa Stubbs, Susan Lucas, Tijana Glavina, Andrea Aerts, Pete Kaiser, Lisa Rothwell, John R. Young, Sally Rogers, Brian A. Walker, Andy van Hateren, Jim Kaufman, Nat Bumstead, Susan J. Lamont, Huaijun Zhou, Paul M. Hocking, David Morrice, Dirk-Jan de Koning, Andy Law, Neil Bartley, David W. Burt, Henry Hunt, Hans H. Cheng, Ulrika Gunnarsson, Per Wahlberg, Leif Andersson, Ellen Kindlund, Martti T. Tammi, Björn Andersson, Caleb Webber, Chris P. Ponting, Ian M. Overton, Paul E Boardman, Haizhou Tang, Simon J. Hubbard, Stuart A. Wilson, Jun Yu, Jian Wang, HuanMing Yang

We describe a genetic variation map for the chicken genome containing 2.8 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This map is based on a comparison of the sequences of three domestic chicken breeds (a broiler, a layer and a Chinese silkie) with that of their wild ancestor, red jungle fowl. Subsequent experiments indicate that at least 90% of the variant sites are true SNPs, and at least 70% are common SNPs that segregate in many domestic breeds. Mean nucleotide diversity is about five SNPs per kilobase for almost every possible comparison between red jungle fowl and domestic lines, between two different domestic lines, and within domestic lines--in contrast to the notion that domestic animals are highly inbred relative to their wild ancestors. In fact, most of the SNPs originated before domestication, and there is little evidence of selective sweeps for adaptive alleles on length scales greater than 100 kilobases.