Authors: Yanfeng Fu Jinluan Fu Aiguo Wang
Publish Date: 2011/06/19
Volume: 39, Issue: 3, Pages: 2689-2696
Abstract
The swine erythropoietinproducing hepatocellular A4 EphA4 gene which was detected in the endometrium during embryo implantation in pigs was one of the potential candidate genes for reproductive traits In the study two single nucleotide polymorphism SNP loci EphA4 1 and EphA4 2 in exon 3 of EphA4 gene were analyzed to determine whether EphA4 influenced total number born TNB and number born alive NBA Association of two diallelic polymorphisms with reproductive traits was assessed in Landrace Yorkshire and Duroc populations with 2014 litter records of 765 sows The results showed that G allele at EphA4 1 locus or C allele at EphA4 2 locus seemed to have advantageous effects on litter size And the combined analyzed results demonstrated that genotype AGTC AGCC and GGCC are better than genotype AATT AATC and AGTT for TNB and NBA in either single parity or all parities The results in this study demonstrated that EphA4 gene was significantly associated with litter size in pigs In addition a high mRNA expression of EphA4 was found in small intestine large intestine stomach and endometrium and the expression decreased during implantation in pigs Further studies were needed to confirm these preliminary researchesThe authors greatly appreciate Beijing Huadu Swine Breeding Company LTD for collecting samples This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China No 30771540 and National HighTechnology Research Development Program of China No 2007AA10Z166
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