For thousands of years, camels have produced meat, milk, and fiber in harsh desert conditions. For a sustainable development to provide protein resources from desert areas, it is necessary to pay attention to genetic improvement in camel breeding. By using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) method we produced over 14,500 genome wide markers to conduct a genome- wide association study (GWAS) for investigating the birth weight, daily gain, and body weight of 96 dromedaries in the Iranian central desert. A total of 99 SNPs were associated with birth weight, daily gain, and body weight (p-value < 0.002). Genomic breeding values (GEBVs) were estimated with the BGLR package using (i) all 14,522 SNPs and (ii) the 99 SNPs by GWAS. Twenty-eight SNPs were associated with birth weight, daily gain, and body weight (p-value < 0.001). Annotation of the genomic region (s) within ± 100 kb of the associated SNPs facilitated prediction of 36 candidate genes. The accuracy of GEBVs was more than 0.65 based on all 14,522 SNPs, but the regression coefficients for birth weight, daily gain, and body weight were 0.39, 0.20, and 0.23, respectively. Because of low sample size, the GEBVs were predicted using the associated SNPs from GWAS. The accuracy of GEBVs based on the 99 associated SNPs was 0.62, 0.82, and 0.57 for birth weight, daily gain, and body weight. This report is the first GWAS using GBS on dromedary camels and identifies markers associated with growth traits that could help to plan breeding program to genetic improvement. Further researches using larger sample size and collaboration of the camel farmers and more profound understanding will permit verification of the associated SNPs identified in this project. The preliminary results of study show that genomic selection could be the appropriate way to genetic improvement of body weight in dromedary camels, which is challenging due to a long generation interval, seasonal reproduction, and lack of records and pedigrees.

In the case of camels, there is little data in the literature on the relationship between body building features and the evaluation of milk yield. In the last decade, a rising interest in camel milk has been observed due to its nutritional and health-promoting properties, resulting in a growing market demand. Despite the remarkable importance of camels, very little improvement in camel breeding and selection for dairy purposes has been achieved. The current study aimed to provide a practical approach to the evaluation of dairy dromedaries based on test day milk and morphometric records. A total of 62 Sindi dairy camels were evaluated and 4176 daily milk records were registered in February, March, April, and May 2021. She-camels were milked twice per day (at morning and evening) by hand before calf sucking. The farming system was intensive with two times feeding. Three measurements had the highest scores in assessing: udder, teats distance and placement, and teats size, which included 45 out of 100 scores. Test day milk records were analysed using a simple repeatability model with two random effects. The range of daily milk yields was estimated between 0.1 to 8.70 kg. The mean of body scores was 77.19 (CI = 74.19–80.19). Daily milk yields moderately correlated with body score (r = +0.27). Additionally, udder circumference and abdomen girth were correlated to milk production. Using test day milk records in breeding programs can be appropriate for the selection and replacement of she-camels, but due to difficulties in accessing these data, using morphometric data is a good criterion for the evaluation of dromedaries in extensive systems.

Background: Investigating genomic regions associated with morphometric traits in camels is valuable, because it allows a better understanding of adaptive and productive features to implement a sustainable management and a customised breeding program for dromedaries.Objectives: With a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) including 96 Iranian dromedaries phenotyped for 12 morphometric traits and genotyped‐by‐sequencing (GBS) with 14,522 SNPs, we aimed at identifying associated candidate genes.Methods: The association between SNPs and morphometric traits was investigated using a linear mixed model with principal component analysis (PCA) and kinship matrix.Results: With this approach, we detected 59 SNPs located in 37 candidate genes potentially associated to morphometric traits in dromedaries. The top associated SNPs were related to pin width, whither to pin length, height at whither, muzzle girth, and tail length. Interestingly, the results highlight the association between whither height, muzzle circumference, tail length, whither to pin length. The identified candidate genes were associated with growth, body size, and immune system in other species.Conclusions: We identified three key hub genes in the gene network analysis including ACTB, SOCS1 and ARFGEF1. In the central position of gene network, ACTB was detected as the most important gene related to muscle function. With this initial GWAS using GBS on dromedary camels for morphometric traits, we show that this SNP panel can be effective for genetic evaluation of growth in dromedaries. However, we suggest a higher‐density SNP array may greatly improve the reliability of the results.

A significant role of Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) genetic variants in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension and cardiovascular diseases has been proved. This study aimed to develop a new, fast and cheap method for the simultaneous detection of two missense single nucleotide polymorphisms (T207M or rs4762 and M268T orrs699) of angiotensinogen (AGT) in single-step Multiplex Hexa-Primer Amplification Refractory Mutation System - polymerase chain reaction (H-ARMS-PCR). In this case-control study, 148 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 135 controls were included. The patients were referred to cardiac centers in Afshar Hospital (Yazd, Iran) from 2012 to 2015. Two sets of inner primer (for each SNP) and one set outer primer pairs were designed for genotyping of rs4762 and rs699 in single tube H-ARMS-PCR. Direct sequencing of all samples was also performed to assess the accuracy of this method. DNA sequencing method validated the results of single tube H-ARMS-PCR. We found full accordance for genotype adscription by sequencing method. The frequency of the AGT T521 and C702 alleles was significantly higher in CAD patients than in the control group (OR: 0.551, 95% CI: 0.359–0.846, P=0.008 and OR: 0.629, 95% CI: 0.422–0.936, P=0.028, respectively). This is the first work describing a rapid, low-cost, high-throughput simultaneous detection of rs4762 and rs699 polymorphisms in AGT gene, used in large clinical studies.