Identification of more than two paternal haplotypes of the ovine fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) gene in half-sib families: evidence of intragenic meiotic recombination

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 11;9(2):e88691. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088691. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) plays an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism in mammals. In this study, two regions of ovine FABP4 spanning exon 2-intron 2 and exon 3-intron 3 were investigated in four hundred and twenty lambs derived from seven sires that were previously typed as having heterozygous genotypes in both these regions of the gene. These regions have been shown to be variable, with three SNPs plus one indel and four SNPs respectively constituting five and four allele variants in the two regions. Across these regions, fourteen haplotypes have been identified. The lambs were typed using a Polymerase Chain Reaction Single-Stranded Conformational Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) method to identify the haplotypes inherited from the sires. Between three and four paternally-derived haplotypes were identified in the progeny of six of the seven sires, suggesting that meiotic recombination occurs within ovine FABP4. A number of sequence motifs associated with recombination "hotspots" were detected in the two regions of the gene that were analyzed and these may facilitate the recombination.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alleles
  • Animals
  • Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins / genetics*
  • Genetic Variation
  • Genotype
  • Haplotypes*
  • Heterozygote
  • Meiosis*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Recombination, Genetic*
  • Sheep / genetics

Substances

  • Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins

Grants and funding

This work is funded by the Chinese International Cooperation and Exchanges Program, the Gansu Province Creative Research Groups Program and the Lincoln University Gene-Marker Laboratory. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.