Variants in <i>FtsJ RNA 2'-O-Methyltransferase 3</i> and <i>Growth Hormone 1</i> are associated with small body size and a dental anomaly in dogs.

Abstract

Domesticated dogs show unparalleled diversity in body size across breeds, but within breeds variation is limited by selective breeding. Many heritable diseases of dogs are found among breeds of similar sizes, suggesting that as in humans, alleles governing growth have pleiotropic effects. Here, we conducted independent genome-wide association studies in the small Shetland Sheepdog breed and discovered a locus on chromosome 9 that is associated with a dental abnormality called maxillary canine-tooth mesioversion (MCM) (<i>P</i> = 1.53 × 10^-7) as well as two body size traits: height (<i>P</i> = 1.67 × 10^-5) and weight (<i>P</i> = 1.16 × 10^-7). Using whole-genome resequencing data, we identified variants in two proximal genes: <i>FTSJ3</i>, encoding an RNA methyltransferase, and <i>GH1</i>, encoding growth hormone. A substitution in <i>FTSJ3</i> and a splice donor insertion in <i>GH1</i> are strongly associated with MCM and reduced body size in Shetland Sheepdogs. We demonstrated in vitro that the <i>GH1</i> variant leads to exon 3 skipping, predicting a mutant protein known to cause human pituitary dwarfism. Statistical modeling, however, indicates that the <i>FTSJ3</i> variant is the stronger predictor of MCM and that each derived allele reduces body size by about 1 inch and 5 pounds. In a survey of 224 breeds, both <i>FTSJ3</i> and <i>GH1</i> variants are frequent among very small "toy" breeds and absent from larger breeds. Our findings indicate that a chromosome 9 locus harboring tightly linked variants in <i>FTSJ3</i> and <i>GH1</i> reduces growth in the Shetland Sheepdog and toy breed dogs and confers risk for MCM through vertical pleiotropy.