Polymorphisms of ESR1, PGR and CYP19A1 Genes and their Association with Litter Size in Small-Tailed Han Sheep
Polymorphisms of ESR1, PGR and CYP19A1 Genes and their Association with Litter Size in Small-Tailed Han Sheep
Qingqing Liu1,2, Zhilong Tian1, Chunhuan Ren2, Zijun Zhang2 and Mingxing Chu1*
ABSTRACT
Litter size is one of the most important economic traits in sheep. This study aimed to explore the association of polymorphisms of ESR1 gene (g.75521224T > A, g.75378892A>T), PGR gene (g.4187121T>C) and CYP19A1 gene (g.56122588G> A) with litter size in sheep, searching for new molecular markers for litter size trait in sheep. Sequenom Mass ARRAY® SNP technology was used to detect polymorphisms at these loci of ESR1, PGR and CYP19A1 genes in seven sheep breeds including polytocous sheep (Small-tailed Han sheep (STH), Hu sheep and Cele Black sheep) and monotocous sheep (Tan sheep, Sunite sheep, Suffolk sheep and Tibetan sheep), then the association between the loci and litter size in STH sheep was analyzed. Our results revealed that each locus in most sheep breeds contained three genotypes. For genotyping, we found that genotype and allele frequencies of three loci (g.75521224T> A, g.41871219T> C, g.56122588G > A) of the three genes were significantly different (p < 0.05) between the monotocous and polytocous groups, and we found that the polymorphism information content value in all sheep breeds ranged from 0 to 0.37, and most sheep breeds were under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) (p > 0.05). In addition, the association analysis showed that there was a significant association between the g.75378892A > T polymorphism and the litter size of the first, second and third parties (p ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, the g.75378892A > T locus of ESR1 gene may provide a valuable reference to litter size trait selection in STH sheep and the g.75521224T > A locus of ESR1gene, g.41871219T > C of PGR gene, g.56122588G > A of CYP19A1 were not suitable for breeding of STH sheep. We speculate that the misstense mutation of ESR1 may reduce the ability to bind to NCOA1, resulting in fecundity in the Small-tailed Han sheep. This study provides valuable genetic markers for sheep breeding.
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