Understanding the genetic changes underlying phenotypic variation in sheep (*Ovis aries*) may facilitate our efforts towards further improvement. This study reports the deep resequencing of 248 sheep including the wild ancestor (*O. orientalis*), landraces, and improved breeds. Genomic regions harboring genes associated with distinct morphological and agronomic traits were detected. Non-synonymous mutations in candidate genes and significant differences in allele frequency distributions across breeds were found. *PDGFD* was identified as a likely causal gene for tail fat deposition. The results provide insights into sheep's demographic history and a valuable genomic resource for future genetic studies and improved genome-assisted breeding.

Xin Li, Ji Yang, Min Shen, Xing-Long Xie, Guang-Jian Liu, Ya-Xi Xu, Feng-Hua Lv, Hua Yang, Yong-Lin Yang, Chang-Bin Liu, Ping Zhou, Peng-Cheng Wan, Yun-Sheng Zhang, Lei Gao, Jing-Quan Yang, Wen-Hui Pi, Yan-Ling Ren, Zhi-Qiang Shen, Feng Wang, Juan Deng, Song-Song Xu, Hosein Salehian-Dehkordi, Eer Hehua, Ali Esmailizadeh, Mostafa Dehghani-Qanatqestani, Ondřej Štěpánek, Christina Weimann, Georg Erhardt, Agraw Amane, Joram M. Mwacharo, Jian-Lin Han, Olivier Hanotte, Johannes A. Lenstra, Juha Kantanen, David W. Coltman, James W. Kijas, Michael W. Bruford, Kathiravan Periasamy, Xin-Hua Wang, Meng-Hua Li