Sequence and Haplotypes Variation of the Ovine Uncoupling Protein-1 Gene (UCP1) and Their Association with Growth and Carcass Traits in New Zealand Romney Lambs

Abstract

Uncoupling protein-1 gene (UCP1) plays an important role in the regulation of thermogenesis, energy expenditure, and protection against oxidative stress. In this study, six separate UCP1 regions: region-1 and region-2 (two parts of the promoter), region-3 and region-4 (two parts of intron 1), region-5 (spanning part of intron 5 and part of exon 6), and region-6 (spanning part of exon 6 and part of the 3′-UTR) from a variety of sheep breeds, were analysed using polymerase chain reaction-single-stranded conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analyses. In total, 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected. Of these, 14 were located in the promoter, eight were found in intron 1, six were found in intron 5, and one was found in the 3′-UTR. One substitution in exon 6 (c.910A/G) would putatively result in an amino acid change (p.Thr304Ala). Twenty-eight novel SNPs and nine new haplotypes spanning region-2 to region-5 were identified. Of these nine haplotypes, five were common (B2-A5, C2-A5, C2-C5, A2-A5, and A2-B5) and four were rare (C2-B5, A2-C5, B2-C5, and B2-B5) in the sheep investigated. Of the five common haplotypes found in 314 New Zealand Romney sheep for which growth and carcass trait data were available, the presence of A2-B5 was associated with decreased hot carcass weight (HCW) and loin lean-meat yield (p = 0.006, p = 0.032, respectively), and the presence of C2-C5 was associated with a decreased proportion of leg lean-meat yield (p = 0.047) in the carcasses. No associations were found with growth traits. These results confirm that ovine UCP1 is a variable gene and may have value as a genetic marker for sheep breeding.

A Novel Mutation in the Promoter Region of Avian Uncoupling Protein3 Associated with Feed Efficiency and Body Composition Traits in Broiler Chicken.

“…Moreover, in the human field, some supportive investigations have indicated common mutations on promoter sites of UCP3 are associated with childhood obesity, energy expenditure, body weight alteration, and BMI (Mutombo et al, 2013;Brondani et al, 2014). Almost every research conducted on UCP3 recommended some promotion in feed efficiency and growth performance traits in chicken associated with UCP3 polymorphism in chicken (Nguyen et al, 2015;Moazeni et al, 2016;Jin et al, 2018), in Japanese quail (Murata et al, 2013), in New Zealand Romney lambs (An et al, 2018), and in Angus' steers (Kolath et al, 2006). Furthermore, recent studies suggest that proton uncoupling action of UCP3 in mitochondria can permit heat production and regulate energy metabolism in beige adipose tissue in pigs (Cieslak et al, 2009;Lin et al, 2017).…”

“…This contrasting result may come from the fact that different determinants including hormonal levels, nutrition, genotypes, and even data structure are responsible for phenotypic plasticity (De-Jong and Bijma 2002;Johnsson et al, 2018). The strategy of using UCP3 polymorphism as a DNA marker would increase body weight, improve production quality and decrease abdominal fat next will cause low production costs in the poultry industry (Liu et al, 2007;Moazeni et al, 2016;An et al, 2018;Jin et al, 2018). The existence of some alteration in the promoter region makes biological sense which confirms regulatory sequences should be variable.…”

“…Additionally, the vast investigation indicated that this protein may play a major role in body energy expenditure, particularly in skeletal muscle (Bailey et al, 1998;Boss et al, 1998;Raimbault et al, 2001;Abe et al, 2006;Liu et al, 2007). In addition, consecutive pieces of literature were implemented to characterize the gene structure and detect variants in the UCP3, paid particular attention to alteration in energy expenditure, growth, obesity, and body mass index in Human (Mutombo et al, 2013;Brondani et al, 2014;An et al, 2018). Also, UCP3 variation analysis in animal genetic fields, collectively, elucidated significant differentiation on feed efficiency and performance traits in farm animals (Choi et al, 2006;Kolath et al, 2006;Liu et al, 2007;Murata et al, 2013;Moazeni et al, 2016;Jin et al, 2018).…”

“…As a result of any alteration in promoter regions that can change the activity of encoded protein so it will modify energy expenditure by affecting on the coupling level of oxidative phosphorylation, thereby providing variations in body weight and abdominal fat (Liu et al, 2007;Cieslak et al, 2009;Jastroch et al, 2010;Murata et al, 2013). Since, more accumulation of fat could decrease the feed conversion rate and meat quality in meat-typed chicken, therefore, rapid growth and lower fat deposition have required a great deal of interest concordantly in recent and following years because of its prominent issues in animal breeding (Sharma et al, 2008;An et al, 2018;Jin et al, 2018). In summary, due to a broad perspective appeared from previous studies, UCP3 has a crucial impact on growth traits and feed efficiency in many species.…”

Exploring the Potential and Limitations of PCR-RFLP and PCR-SSCP for SNP Detection: A Review

“…This alteration has been well documented in several domestic animals in which many genotype-phenotype studies were performed. Several productive and reproductive traits that depend on SNPs were detected by PCR-SSCP, such as wool characteristics, milk synthesis, carcass weight, meat tenderness, and biochemical parameters [49][50][51][52][53][54] (Table 2). However, PCR-RFLP applications were used in the detection of pork contamination in frozen meat products.…”