title: Developmental methylation pattern regulates porcine GPR120 expression.
abstract: DNA methylation is an important component of the epigenetic machinery and plays a critical role in transcriptional regulation. It mostly occurs in CpG abundant regions, known as CpG islands (CGIs). G protein-coupled receptor 120 (GPR120) functions as an omega-3 fatty acid receptor and is involved in multiple-biological processes, including lipogenesis. Herein, we show that GPR120 is highly expressed in porcine mature adipose tissue and is positively associated with adipose tissue development (r = 0.86, P < 0.01). We also predicted 5 CGIs across the GPR120 genomic sequence and investigated their methylation status using the MassArray approach. Our results show that these CGIs exhibit significantly different methylation states (P(CGI) < 0.01), and that the DNA methylation of GPR120 5ꞌ-untranslated and first exon regions can negatively regulate its expression levels. This study will aid further investigations on the epigenetic mechanism regulating GPR120 expression.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Che
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: M Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: X W
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D050156:Adipogenesis; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000235:genetics*; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled