Two New Insertion/Deletion Variants of the PITX2 Gene and their Effects on Growth Traits in Sheep

Abstract

In China, Tong sheep (TS) and Lanzhou fat-tailed sheep (LFTS) are two closely relative endanger breeds for low meat production and low fecundity, finding some marker-assisted selected (MAS) is our first priority for improving their growth traits. For this purpose, Hu sheep (HS) and small-tailed Han sheep (STHS) were compared with two endangered breeds (TS and LFTS). Paired-liked homeodomain transcription factor 2 (PITX2) gene was the important member of PITX family, which could adjust animal growth through hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. During the past years, insertion/deletion (indel) has become increasingly popular in application as MAS. In this study, two novel indel loci were identified, and five significant differences, including chest width, hip width, chest depth, chest circumference, and body height, were found between different breeds. Interestingly, there was no DD genotype and smaller number of ID genotye. All the ID genotypes were significantly greater than II genotype, which was to say the allele of "D" was dominant variation and its frequency was lower, which demonstrated that it has huge space for selection. Briefly, the two indel were potential and useful DNA markers for selecting excellent individuals in relation to growth traits in sheep.

A 20-bp insertion/deletion (indel) polymorphism within the <i>CDC25A</i> gene and its associations with growth traits in goat

“…MAS is the most common method in molecular breeding. Especially indel has been widely reported in animal breeding for potential MAS (Ren et al, 2017;Cui et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2018;Kang et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2019). Therefore, we aimed to determine the relationship between the indel polymorphism within the CDC25A and growth traits in goat.…”

A novel 28-bp indel inIGF1Rgene associated with growth traits across four Chinese cattle breeds

“…In addition, several reports have shown that mutations in introns can have a significant impact on livestock and poultry production. Two indel mutations in the intronic region of the ovine PITX2 gene have been found to have significant effects on ovine growth traits (Zhao et al ., 2017). A 15-bp indel on the intron of HIAT1 is detected to be relevant to the growth traits of goats and could be used for MAS as a molecular marker in goat populations (Gao et al ., 2020).…”

Novel InDels of GHR, GHRH, GHRHR and Their Association with Growth Traits in Seven Chinese Sheep Breeds

“…The body weight (BW), body height (BH), body length (BL), chest circumference (ChC), chest depth (ChD), chest width (ChW), hucklebone width (HuW), hip width (HW), and cannon circumference (CaC) were reported using standard measurement method [ 25 ]. Consequently, body length index (BLI), chest circumference index (ChCI), chest width index (ChWI), cannon circumference index (CaCI), hucklebone width index (HuWI), and trunk index (TI) were calculated [ 26 ].…”