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Analysis of the porcine APOA 2 gene expression in liver, polymorphism identification and association with fatty acid composition traits
Author(s) -
Ballester M.,
Revilla M.,
PuigOliveras A.,
Marchesi J. A. P.,
Castelló A.,
Corominas J.,
Fernández A. I.,
Folch J. M.
Publication year - 2016
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.12462
Subject(s) - biology , linoleic acid , genetics , polyunsaturated fatty acid , quantitative trait locus , allele , population , single nucleotide polymorphism , exon , fatty acid , gene , biochemistry , genotype , demography , sociology
Summary APOA 2 is a protein implicated in triglyceride, fatty acid and glucose metabolism. In pigs, the APOA 2 gene is located on pig chromosome 4 ( SSC 4) in a QTL region affecting fatty acid composition, fatness and growth traits. In this study, we evaluated APOA 2 as a candidate gene for meat quality traits in an Iberian × Landrace backcross population. The APOA 2 :c.131T>A polymorphism, located in exon 3 of APOA 2 and determining a missense mutation, was associated with the percentage of hexadecenoic acid [C16:1(n–9)], linoleic acid [C18:2(n–6)], α ‐linolenic acid [C18:3(n–3)], dihomo‐gamma‐linolenic acid [C20:3(n–6)] and polyunsaturated fatty acids ( PUFA s) in backfat. Furthermore, this SNP was associated with the global mRNA expression levels of APOA 2 in liver and was used as a marker to determine allelic expression imbalance by pyrosequencing. We determined an overexpression of the T allele in heterozygous samples with a mean ratio of 2.8 ( T/A ), observing a high variability in the allelic expression among individuals. This result suggests that complex regulatory mechanisms, beyond a single polymorphism ( e.g . epigenetic effects or multiple cis‐acting polymorphisms), may be regulating APOA 2 gene expression.