{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T05:23:49Z","timestamp":1787289829838,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787097600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key R&D Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2021YFD1200902"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFD1200902"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key R&D Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2023YFF1000904"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFF1000904"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["32272853"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32272853"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["32272853"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32272853"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Improving growth while preserving breed-defining characteristics is a central challenge in indigenous livestock breeding. We addressed this issue in Jining Grey goats using low-depth whole-genome sequencing and a conservative multi-evidence marker-prioritization framework. The discovery cohort included 70 performance-graded goats at 3 months (n = 37) and 6 months (n = 33; mean depth, 2.07\u00d7), and 47 seven-day-old goats from the same project were used for exploratory early-life trend analysis (mean depth, 2.10\u00d7). After site-level filtering, phasing, and within-cohort imputation, masking-based assessment of 120,000 genotype cells yielded 94.38% exact genotype concordance and a hard-dosage correlation of 0.919. Performance grading captured consistent differences in body weight and body-size traits, but the small 3-month Conventional group required conservative interpretation. Selective-sweep analyses highlighted breed-background regions, including signals near KIT, whereas GWAS and superior-genotype comparisons prioritized candidate growth loci, including chr10:78518687 for six-month chest girth and literature-supported genes involved in muscle growth and developmental regulation. Overlap and permutation analyses indicated limited physical overlap between growth-prioritized loci and major selective-sweep regions. A 99-SNP candidate panel showed exploratory prediction potential (maximum cross-validated r \u2248 0.47), whereas seven-day analyses showed only nominal trends without FDR significance. These findings provide a preliminary marker resource for future Jining Grey goat breeding and conservation, pending external validation, denser genotyping, and functional confirmation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16162593","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T13:14:01Z","timestamp":1787145241000},"page":"2593","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Genomic Dissection of Growth Traits and Spatial Independence from Breed-Defining Loci in Jining Grey Goats"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-1309-5078","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yongbo","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-7973-4025","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tianxu","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aowu","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jingchao","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Di","family":"Lian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8418-4916","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhengxing","family":"Lian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Genetic Improvement, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"207","DOI":"10.5194\/aab-65-207-2022","article-title":"Status Quo of Genetic Improvement in Local Goats: A Review","volume":"65","year":"2022","journal-title":"Arch. 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