Detection and use of dwarfism genes in poultry
Unusually short body stature, known as dwarfism, is a condition of growth deficiency and reduced body weight caused by a variety of hereditary and hormonal disruptions. Small-sized(dwarf) animals have attracted a lot of interest of human, whatever it is for leisure, fancy or hobby reasons, people have raised, bred and studied small animals for decades. Here in this PhD project we used thewhole genome sequence data of dwarf/bantam chickens to study the behind genetic nature of the small-sized animals. The objectives of this PhD project focus on identifying the casual variation(s) and gene(s) that account for the dwarfism in different chicken breeds, as well as exploiting the genetic mechanism and phenotypic impact related to the traits. Hence, the molecular characterization of the dwarf phenotype would provide the knowledge required to potentially utilize and conserve these chicken breeds.