title: Association of CA repeat polymorphism at intron 1 of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) gene with circulating IGF-I concentration, growth, and fatness in swine.
abstract: Evidence is accumulating that intronic polymorphic cytosine-adenosine (CA) repeats may play a role in gene expression. In this work, we investigated whether a polymorphic CA short tandem repeat (STR) located at the first intron of the pig insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) gene influences plasma IGF-I concentration in pigs as well as phenotypic variation in growth and fatness traits. We measured plasma IGF-I levels at one to four time points from 35 to 215 days of age in 340 performance-tested Landrace and Duroc pigs previously genotyped for the IGF-I STR. Data were analyzed within breed with a linear mixed model with the number of CA repeats as a covariate. At least five alleles were segregating in each breed, differing in one to seven repeats. The results showed that in each breed, circulating IGF-I at 160 days of age increased with the length of the shortest allele, accounting for an average trend of 4.38 +/- 1.28 ng/ml of IGF-I per additional repeat (P = 0.001). Longer repeats were associated with early growth in Landrace boars (1.92 +/- 0.92 kg per CA at 160 days; P = 0.038) and with back fat thickness (-0.57 +/- 0.20 mm per CA; P = 0.005) and lean content (7.52 +/- 3.00 g/kg per CA at 105 kg; P = 0.013) adjusted for carcass weight in Duroc barrows, as expected from the effect of circulating IGF-I on these traits. The consistency of the results across populations supports the hypothesis that the length of the CA repeats at intron 1 of the IGF-I gene is associated with circulating IGF-I levels, and that this effect is not neutral with respect to growth and fatness.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Producció Animal, Universitat de Lleida, Lleida, Spain. jestany@prodan.udl.es
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Estany
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tor
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Villalba
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bosch
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gallardo
authors.forename: Neus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Altet
authors.forename: Jose L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Noguera
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reixach
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amills
authors.forename: Armand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism; D000367:Age Factors; D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D018900:Dinucleotide Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D013552:Swine; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I