The ovine HIAT1 gene: mRNA expression, InDel mutations, and growth trait associations

Yunyun Luo; Zhanerke Akhatayeva; Cui Mao; Fugui Jiang; Zhengang Guo; Hongwei Xu; Xianyong Lan

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1134903

The ovine HIAT1 gene: mRNA expression, InDel mutations, and growth trait associations

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Apr 17:10:1134903. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1134903. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yunyun Luo¹, Zhanerke Akhatayeva¹, Cui Mao^{1

2}, Fugui Jiang², Zhengang Guo³, Hongwei Xu⁴, Xianyong Lan¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
² Shandong Key Lab of Animal Disease Control and Breeding, Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China.
³ Bijie Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Research Institute, Bijie, China.
⁴ College of Life Science and Engineering, Northwest Minzu University, Lanzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: The hippocampal abundant transcript 1 (HIAT1) gene, also known as major facilitator superfamily domain-containing 14A (MFSD14A), encodes for a transmembrane transporter protein and has been previously shown to be associated with milk production in buffalo and sheep breeds, as well as growth traits in chicken and goats. However, tissue level distribution of the ovine HIAT1 gene, as well as its effect on body morphometric traits in sheep, has yet to be studied.

Methods: The HIAT1 mRNA expression profile of Lanzhou fat-tailed (LFT) sheep was determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). A total of 1498 sheep of three indigenous Chinese sheep breeds were PCR-genotyped for polymorphisms of HIAT1 gene. Student's t-test was used to observe the association between the genotype and sheep morphometric traits.

Results: HIAT1 was widely expressed in all examined tissues, and was particularly abundant in the testis of male LFT sheep. Additionally, a 9-bp insertion mutation (rs1089950828) located within the 5'-upstream region of HIAT1 was investigated in Luxi black-headed (LXBH) sheep and Guiqian semi-fine wool (GSFW) sheep. The wildtype allele frequency 'D' was found to be more prevalent than that of the mutant allele 'I'. Furthermore, low genetic diversity was confirmed in all sampled sheep populations. Subsequent association analyses indicated an association between the 9-bp InDel mutation of interest and the morphometric traits of LXBH and GSFW sheep. Furthermore, yearling ewes with a heterozygous genotype (ID) demonstrated smaller body sizes, while yearling rams and adult ewes with the heterozygous genotype were found to have overall better growth performance.

Conclusion: These findings imply that functional InDel polymorphism (rs1089950828) has the potential to be utilized for marker-assisted selection (MAS) of growth traits in domestic Chinese sheep populations.

Keywords: HIAT1 gene; growth traits; insertion/deletion (InDel); marker-assisted selection (MAS); sheep.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural and Science Foundation of China (32060741).