Growth hormone polymorphisms and growth traits in Chinese Tibetan sheep Ovis aries

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Growth hormone (GH) plays an important role in promoting growth, protein and muscle accretion, and fat catabolism, suggesting that GH is a potential candidate gene affecting growth traits in vertebrates. In this paper, polymorphisms in GH were investigated in 632 Chinese Tibetan sheep, by using DNA sequencing. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified, including two mutations (g.616G>A and g.624G>A) in intron 2 and one synonymous mutation (g.498G>C) in exon 2. Association analyses showed that both g.498G>C and g.616G>A were significantly associated with several growth traits (at P < 0.01 or P < 0.05) in three investigated breeds. Our results demonstrate that GH variation may be used as a molecular marker for growth traits in Chinese Tibetan sheep.

Genomic structure and molecular characterization of growth hormone and its expression response to different feed types in golden pompanoTrachinotus ovatus(Linnaeus, 1758)

“…High-fat diets commonly caused excess fat accumulation in the liver of farmed fish, which was accompanied by low growth (Regost et al, 2001;Wang et al, 2005). For example, T. japonicus and squid have high fat content (Abugoch, Guarda, Perez, & Paredes, 1999;Fernandez-Jover et al, 2007) and the fish on these two diets had low growth (Sun et al, 2016). GH introns, and the promoter region contains TATA box, Pit-1a, TRE, ERE, HNF-3 and GRE cis elements.…”

“…The samples used in the dietary experiment were previously described by Sun et al (2016). Briefly, 450 healthy T. ovatus were divided into three groups (each group contained three feeding subgroups), kept in floating sea cages for up to 3 months and fed three different diets of iced squid (Loligo chinensis), iced fish (Trachurus japonicus) or pelleted feed that was 36% crude protein.…”

“…The GH gene, an important candidate for studies of genetic variation, is associated with well‐described production traits in animal husbandry (Dettori, Pazzola, Pira, Paschino, & Vacca, ; Fontanesi et al., ; Han, Sun, & Li, ; Ro et al., ; Singh, Tomar, Thakur, & Kumar, ). In fish, a number of studies have implicated the GH gene as a candidate for the growth (Almuly, Cavari, Ferstman, Kolodny, & Funkenstein, ; Kang, Lee, Park, & Ryu, ; Tian et al., ).…”

“…Because of its taste and rapid growth, it is one of the most important marine fish commercially cultured in South China. Furthermore, studies have shown that feed type affects the growth and fatty acid profile of T. ovatus in floating sea cages (Sun et al, 2016). Additionally, GH is a multifunctional hormone that has been widely studied in teleost but not in T. ovatus.…”

“…Intestinal GH can promote cell proliferation and inhibit cell apoptosis that is crucial for maintaining intestinal morphology and function(Schmitmeier, Markland, & Chen, 2000;Yang et al, 2005). Higher rates of weight gain (WGR) in fish fed a diet of pelleted feed(Sun et al, 2016) may be closely related to the structural and functional stability of the intestine; therefore, intestinal GH gene expression in fish from the pelleted feed group may promote the functional stability of the intestine. While our data suggest that GH expression in the liver and intestine affects diet-dependent weight gain in farmraised fish, further assessment of any direct effects of GH regulation of non-pituitary tissue function is needed.…”