Discover of a Novel SNP Highly Associated with Chicken Blue Egg

Blue egg is caused by a dominant mutation, Oocyan (O) which is previous located on short arm of chicken chromosome 1 but precise genetic mechanism underlying blue egg is still unknown so far. In this study, we found a SNP (g.67419892-67419904del13) significantly associated with blue egg using 126 browned-shelled chickens and 202 blue-shelled chickens. The allelic and genotypic frequencies of g.67419892-67419904del13 are significantly higher in blue-shelled chickens (92.5 and 87.1%) compared with brown-shelled chickens (10.7 and 8.7%, p < 0.0001). Moreover, the genetic distance between O and g.67419892-67419904del13 is estimated to be over 2 cM (LOD = 13.51) using 149 F(2) offspring from mating between blue-shelled males and brown-shelled females. Apparently, the marker is useful for the cloning of O and marker aid selection of blue-shelled chicken breed.