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Genetic variants in KDR transcriptional regulatory region affect promoter activity and intramuscular fat deposition in E rhualian pigs
Author(s) -
Fu Y.,
Sun W.,
Xu C.,
Gu S.,
Li Y.,
Liu Z.,
Chen J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
animal genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.756
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2052
pISSN - 0268-9146
DOI - 10.1111/age.12148
Subject(s) - biology , intramuscular fat , promoter , single nucleotide polymorphism , vascular endothelial growth factor , angiogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology , kinase insert domain receptor , haplotype , allele , gene , genotype , gene expression , vascular endothelial growth factor a , cancer research , genetics , vegf receptors , biochemistry
Summary Kinase insert domain receptor ( KDR ), a vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF ) receptor, is widely regarded as having a principal role in mediating VEGF ‐induced responses in angiogenesis. As angiogenesis provides oxygen and nutrients for growth and deposition of adipose cells, our objective was to determine whether the promoter polymorphisms in the KDR gene have effects on intramuscular fat ( IMF ) deposition in the longissimus dorsi muscle. Three novel SNP s, c.‐1316A>G, c.‐1303C>T and c.‐1108A>C, were revealed to have differential allele distribution between high‐ and low‐ IMF content groups by comparative sequencing of DNA pools. The three SNP s were completely linked, forming only ACA or GTC haplotypes when genotyped in 105 Erhualian purebred pigs and 98 Duroc × Large White × Yorkshire (D×L×Y) cross‐bred pigs. It is interesting that the ACA haplotype is present exclusively in Erhualian pigs and not in D×L×Y pigs. The ACA promoter was found to have higher activity than GTC type for KDR transcription using either gene expression analysis or luciferase assay. Site‐direct mutation analysis demonstrated that c.‐1316A>G is the causation of promoter activity alteration. Furthermore, we detected that CD 31 (also known as PECAM 1 ) and CD 34 , two blood vessel endothelial markers, expressed higher in ACA / ACA individuals. We concluded that the ACA promoter might be a desirable form for improving IMF content by promoting higher KDR gene expression and more blood vessel network.