Characterization of different 5′‐untranslated exons of the ASIP gene in black‐and‐tan Doberman Pinscher and brindle Boxer dogs

Abstract

Differential expression of the ASIP gene and its interaction with MC1R have provided basic insight into pigment-type switching in mammals. Here, we report the characterization of a specific red-haired skin transcript and a specific black-haired skin transcript in the ASIP gene in the black-and-tan Doberman Pinscher. It is also shown that the brindle-haired skin of the Boxer exhibits a deregulated expression resulting in various 5'-untranslated exons. Comparative sequence analysis revealed a short interspersed element and a poly(A) stretch inserted within the promoter region of the ASIP in the Boxer. Genotyping studies have shown that both insertions are also present in brindle and fawn animals of the Boxer and Great Dane breeds. Furthermore, we genotyped MC1R and K loci for their known variants that affect coat color in dogs. As expected, all animals were homozygotes (E(M) /E(M) ) for the mask mutation, and fawn animals were k(y) /k(y) . Unexpectedly, we found that all brindle animals were heterozygotes k(B) /k(y) . Our results suggest that differential expression of ASIP determine pigment-type switching in a MC1R and K allele-dependent manner in dogs.

Genetic Diversity and Signatures of Selection in 15 Chinese Indigenous Dog Breeds Revealed by Genome-Wide SNPs

“…We identified the selection signal at the BMP3 location (CFA 32: 5.2–5.4 Mb) in C_MGX. The gene MSRB3 affects ear size and type (Vaysse et al, 2011), RSPO2 affects coat variation (Cadieu et al, 2009), and KITLG affects coat color (Ciampolini et al, 2013). We found selection sweep in these three genes (CFA 10: 7.8–8.0 Mb, CFA 13: 8.6–8.8 Mb, and CFA 15: 29.4–29.6 Mb) ( Table 2 ).…”

Cloning and identification of the ASIP gene in Chinese raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides procyonoides)

“…However, two fragments (243 and 235 bp) were obtained by 5' RACE amplification (Figure 3). BLASTN analysis using the NCBI GenBank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) indicated the existence of two versions of exon 1, designated 1A and 1C according to their high identity with the 1A and 1C counterparts in dog (Ciampolini et al, 2013). By aligning the 1A and 1C sequences of ASIP from Chinese raccoon dog with a canine genomic DNA sequence in GenBank (NC_006606), they were found to be located at positions 23338843-23338927 and 23378757-23378833, respectively.…”

“…The ASIP gene encodes the agouti signaling protein, which is involved in the switch from eumelanin to pheomelanin synthesis in melanocytes. Mutations or polymorphisms in the ASIP gene have been implicated in coat color phenotype in a variety of animals including mice (Vrieling et al, 1994;Hustad et al, 1995), pigs (Drögemüller et al, 2006), sheep (Norris andWhan, 2008;Li et al, 2014), goats (Badaoui et al, 2011), horses (Rieder et al, 2001), rabbits (Fontanesi et al, 2010), red foxes (Våge et al, 1997), and dogs (Dreger and Schmutz, 2011;Ciampolini et al, 2013).…”

Illumina-sequencing based transcriptome study of coat color phenotypes in domestic goats

“…5 The differentially expressed skin color genes identified in the analyzed goat skin and their involvement in the melanogenesis pathway. The genes with a red frame are upregulated and the genes with a green frame are down-regulated in the three comparison groups sheep, horse, pig, dog and donkey (Abitbol et al 2015;Ciampolini et al 2013;Drogemuller et al 2006;Han et al 2015;Norris and Whan 2008;Rieder et al 2001). Our finding that ASIP was detected only in the white skin and not in the dark skin is in contrast to an earlier finding in chickens that showed significantly greater ASIP expression in birds with black skin (Zhang et al 2015).…”