Abstract. Osteopontin (OPN) gene is a secreted phosphoprotein which appears to play a key function in the conceptus implantation, placentation and maintenance of pregnancy in pigs. The objectives of this study were to verify the non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and their association with litter size traits in commercial Thai Large White pigs. A total of 320 Thai Large White sows were genotyped using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Three SNPs at c.425G>A, c.573T>C and c.881C>T revealed amino acid exchange rates of p.110Ala>Thr, p.159Val>Ala and p.262Pro>Ser, respectively, and were then segregated. These three SNPs were significantly associated with total number born (TNB) and number born alive (NBA) traits. No polymorphisms of the two SNP markers (c.278A>G and c.452T>G) were observed in this study. Moreover, the SNPs at c.425G>A and c.573T>C were found to be in strong linkage disequilibrium. The association of OPN with litter size emphasizes the importance of porcine OPN as a candidate gene for reproductive traits in pig breeding.

Genetic diversity among 126 rice accessions, including 110 Thai landraces and 16 varieties used as subspecies reference, were evaluated by three types of DNA markers, InDel (Insertion/Deletion), intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Twelve InDel primer pairs, based on DNA sequence polymorphism between '93-11' (indica) and 'Nipponbare' (japonica), were used to identify subspecies of landraces. Most of the local rice samples had either '93-11' alleles or 'Nipponbare' alleles. The scatter plotting of the principal component analysis (PCA) and dendrogram results based on InDel data could clearly classify landraces into two groups, indica and japonica. InDel and SSR markers showed the average polymorphic information content (PIC) values of 0.3707 and 0.6367, respectively. The dendrogram, based on combining InDel, ISSR and SSR data, could classify rice samples into five clusters at a cutoff genetic similarity value of about 0.70. The genetic similarity within landraces was low, indicating that Thai local rice samples have a great genetic diversity. The results of this experiment provide helpful data for rice germplasm management in breeding program.

ObjectiveThis study was conducted to identify and evaluate the effective single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for fat deposition in the longissimus dorsi muscles of pigs using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) approach.MethodsSixty-four selective primer combinations were used to identify the AFLP markers in the 20 highest- and 20 lowest-intramuscular fat (IMF) content phenotypes. Five AFLP fragments were converted into simple codominant SNP markers. These SNP markers were tested in terms of their association with IMF content and fatty acid (FA) composition traits in 620 commercially crossbred pigs.ResultsThe SSC7 g.4937240C>G marker showed an association with IMF content (p<0.05). The SSC9 g.5496647_5496662insdel marker showed a significant association with IMF content and arachidonic levels (p<0.05). The SSC10 g.71225134G>A marker revealed an association with palmitoleic and ω9 FA levels (p<0.05), while the SSC17 g.61976696G>T marker showed a significant association with IMF content and FA levels of palmitoleic, eicosenoic, arachidonic, monounsaturated fatty acids, and ω9 FA levels. However, no significant association of SSC8 g.47338181G>A was observed with any IMF and FA levels in this study.ConclusionFour SNP markers (SSC7 g.4937240C>G, SSC9 g.5496647_5496662insdel, SSC10 g.71225134G>A, and SSC17 g.61976696G>T) were found to be associated with IMF and/or FA content traits in commercially crossbred pigs. These findings provide evidence of the novel SNP markers as being potentially useful for selecting pigs with the desirable IMF content and FA composition.

ABSTRACT. The nuclear receptor subfamily 4, group A, member 1 (NR4A1) and guanine nucleotide binding protein beta polypeptide 2 like-1 (GNB2L1) genes are expressed during the ovulatory process and in early pregnancy in pigs. The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of NR4A1 and GNB2L1 gene variants on reproductive traits in commercial pig breeds. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of NR4A1 and GNB2L1 were identified by a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Analysis of the association of these two SNPs with reproductive traits was evaluated in 515 commercial sows (273 Large White and 242 Landrace). The SNP NR4A1 g.3952A>G showed a significant association with the total number of piglets born, the number of piglets born alive, the number of piglets weaned alive, and the litter weight at weaning in the Landrace sows (P < 0.05). A significant association of SNP GNB2L1 g.2373T>C with the litter weight at birth was observed in the Large White 16277 Effects of NR4A1 and GNB2L1 genes on reproductive traits ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 14 (4): 16276-16284 (2015) sows (P < 0.05). These results indicate that the porcine NR4A1 and GNB2L1 can be used as candidate genes for improvement of litter size traits in pigs.