title: Analysis of associations of PIT1 genotypes with growth, meat quality and carcass composition traits in pigs.
abstract: PIT1 was chosen as a candidate gene to investigate its associations with growth, meat quality and carcass composition traits in the pig. PIT1 is known as the pituitary-specific activator of the growth hormone in several mammals. Furthermore, PIT1 is a positive regulatory factor of prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone beta. PIT1 is a member of the POU-domain family of genes and is located on porcine chromosome 13. Two informative three-generation families of the University of Hohenheim were used for the presented investigations. The families were based on crosses of the European Wild boar (W) x Pietrain (P) and Meishan (M) x Pietrain (P). Each family included 310 F(2) animals. A RsaI (PCR) RFLP described by Yu et al. (1994) was used for genotyping the animals. Altogether over 50 parameters of growth, meat quality, carcass composition and stress susceptibility were evaluated concerning their associations with RsaI PCR-RFLP. The statistical model of association analyses was used including fixed effects of sex, family, PIT1 genotypes and covariate age at slaughter. Taking the significance level of p < 0.05 as the basis, fourteen traits of growth and carcass composition were associated with PIT1 genotypes in family W x P. Results from this study suggest that there are contributions of PIT1 gene to variations in the analysed performance traits in pigs. The influence of PIT1 genotypes could not be confirmed under the supposition of a genome-wide test limit.
authors.affiliation: Humboldt-University of Berlin, Agricultural and Horticultural Faculty, Institute of Animal Sciences, Department of Breeding Biology and Molecular Animal Breeding, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brunsch
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sternstein
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reinecke
authors.forename: Józef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bieniek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D008461:Meat Products; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D050817:Transcription Factor Pit-1; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D050817:Transcription Factor Pit-1; D014157:Transcription Factors