title: Imprinting analysis of porcine MAGEL2 gene in two fetal stages and association analysis with carcass traits.
abstract: Imprinted genes play an essential role in the regulation of fetal growth, development and function of the placenta, however only a limited number of imprinted genes have been studied in swine. In this study, we cloned and characterized porcine MAGEL2 (melanoma antigen-like gene 2), and also identified its imprinting status during porcine fetal development. The complete open reading frame (ORF) encoding 1,193 amino acids was isolated and two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (g.2592A>C and g.3277T>C) in the coding region were identified. The reciprocal Yorkshire×Meishan F1 hybrid model and the RT-PCR/RFLP method were used to detect the imprinting status of porcine MAGEL2 gene at two developmental stages of day 30 and 65 of gestation. Imprinting analysis showed that porcine MAGEL2 was paternally expressed in day 65 fetal tissues, including heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, stomach, small intestine, skeletal muscle, brain and placenta. Interestingly, we observed an imprinting variance of MAGEL2 gene in 30 dpc fetuses produced by the cross of Yorkshire boar×Meishan sow, in which seven heterozygous fetuses were monoallelically expressed from the paternal allele but two were biallelically expressed from both the paternal and maternal alleles. Association analysis in a Yorkshire×Meishan F2 resource population showed that the mutation of g.2592A>C was significantly associated with dressed carcass percentage (P<0.05) and buttock fat thickness (P<0.05). Our results suggest that MAGEL2, as a novel imprinted gene in pig, might be a candidate gene affecting carcass traits and could provide important information for the functional study of imprinted genes during porcine development.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pig Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Mu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Yuan-Zhu
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Chang-Yan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D001947:Breeding / Q000379:methods; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005333:Fetus; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D018392:Genomic Imprinting / Q000235:genetics*; D008460:Meat; D058950:Melanoma-Specific Antigens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D058950:Melanoma-Specific Antigens