Haplotypes and effects on growth traits of bovine Wnt7a gene in Chinese Qinchuan cattle

Gene. 2013 Jul 25;524(2):241-5. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2013.04.013. Epub 2013 Apr 21.

Abstract

Wnt7a is a member of the WNT gene family, which encodes secreted signaling proteins and responds to many biological processes. Specifically Wnt7a influences satellite stem cells and regulates the regenerative potential of the muscle. However, similar researches about the bovine Wnt7a gene are lacking. Therefore, in this study, polymorphisms of the bovine Wnt7a gene were detected in 488 individuals from Chinese Qinchuan cattle by DNA pooling, forced PCR-RFLP, and DNA sequencing methods. 3 novel SNPs were identified, two SNPs (g.T4926C and g.A21943G) were in the intron and the last one (g.C63777T) was in the exon. Five haplotypes involved in these three variant sites in the Wnt7a gene were identified and their effects on growth traits were analyzed. The results revealed that haplotype 1 had the highest haplotype frequencies and was highly significantly associated with body height (P<0.01), body weight (P<0.05), chest width (P<0.05) and height at hip cross (P<0.01) respectively.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alleles
  • Animals
  • Body Size / genetics*
  • Cattle
  • Chromosomes, Mammalian / genetics
  • Female
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Loci
  • Genomic Structural Variation
  • Haplotypes*
  • Introns
  • Linkage Disequilibrium
  • Point Mutation
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Wnt Proteins / genetics*
  • Wnt Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Wnt Proteins