ArticlePoultry science2026
Genetic variants associated with reduced body size in indigenous chickens of Eritrea: A genome-wide association study.
Article in Poultry science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Indigenous chickens in Eritrea are raised mainly in low-input village systems and show marked variation in body size, including reduced body size phenotype, a trait associated with reduced feed consumption, thermotolerance, disease resistance, and adaptability to resource-limited environments. This study aimed to identify genomic regions associated with reduced body size using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in Eritrean chicken ecotypes. Blood samples from 384 ICs across 16 ecotypes (21 to 24 birds per ecotype) were genotyped using DArTseq technology. Three putative short-bodied ecotypes, Barentu (BAR), Foro (FORO), and Gogne (GOG), were compared with five heavier control ecotypes: Fshe-Mrara (FM), Adi-Tekeliezan (ADTEK), Emni-Haili (HAYL), Dekemhare (DEKE), and Adikeyh (KEIH). After filtering for individual missingness, marker call rate, and minor allele frequency, 141 birds and 42,356 SNP remained. Population structure was evaluated by principal component analysis and ADMIXTURE. Exploratory case-control GWAS were conducted for each putative reduced-body-size ecotype and for the 3 ecotypes combined. Complementary quantitative-trait GWAS used body weight, body length, back length, and shank length was carried out. Linear mixed models implemented in GEMMA included sex as a fixed effect and genomic kinship as a random effect. The first 2 principal components showed extensive ancestry sharing, although GOG was more differentiated. Ecotype-specific analyses identified significant regions near CDK6, BDNF, FOXP1, TNS3, and LGR4 in FORO; EIF2AK2, NANP, MDH1, UGP2 and FGF13 in GOG; and HMGA2, IGF2, BRSK1 and SUCNR1 in BAR. The combined analysis showed no genome-wide significant variants but revealed suggestive signals near ASAP1, EIF2AK2, and FOXP1, indicating a polygenic and ecotype-specific architecture. Overlapping candidate genes across analyses included TH (common to all) and EIF2AK2 (present in all ecotypes except FORO). Quantitative-trait analyses detected a single significant SNP within CACNB4 for back length, but none for the other traits. Overall, reduced body size in Eritrean IC appears to be a complex trait controlled by multiple loci, involving both conserved growth regulators and genes related to metabolic efficiency and environmental adaptation. These findings provide a genomic basis for future breeding strategies to improve productivity, resilience and sustainability of village poultry production systems in resource-limited regions of Eritrea.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.