ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2019, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (3): 495-506.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2019.03.004

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Analysis of Tissue Expression, Polymorphism of LHR Gene and Its Association with Litter Size in Small Tail Han Sheep

CUN Jingyu1,2, LIU Qiuyue2, WANG Xiangyu2, DI Ran2, HU Wenping2, ZHANG Xiaosheng3, ZHANG Jinlong3, ZHAO Yongju1*, CHU Mingxing2*   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China;
    3. Tianjin Institute of Animal Sciences, Tianjin 300381, China
  • Received:2018-07-16 Online:2019-03-23 Published:2019-03-23

Abstract:

This study was conducted to evaluate the expression patterns and polymorphisms of LHR gene in the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis (HPOA) and its association with litter size in Small Tail Han sheep, and further understand its effect on lambing traits of Small Tail Han sheep. The real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) method was used to detect the expression of the LHR gene in reproductive and brain tissues of 6 Small Tail Han sheep (3 polytocous and 3 monotocous ewes from the FecB ++ genotype) in this study. The 380 Small Tail Han sheep and total 380 sheep for Small Tail Han sheep, Tan, Sunite, Cele Black, Hu and Prairie Tibetan sheep were selected, and Sequenom MassARRAY®SNP assay was applied to detect the polymorphism of 7 single nucleotide polymorphism sites (SNPs) of LHR gene. Then the association between LHR and litter size was analyzed in Small Tail Han sheep. The results showed that LHR gene was expressed in the brain, hypothalamus and ovary tissues, and highly expressed in ovary. The expression of LHR gene in ovary, brain and hypothalamus of polytocous Small Tail Han ewes was extremely significant higher than that of monotocous ewes (P<0.01). The genotype frequencies and allele frequencies of the 4 SNPs were extremely significantly different between monotocous and polytocous sheep breeds (P<0.01). Population genetic analysis indicated that 7 SNPs showed moderate polymorphism in most sheep breeds (0.25 < PIC < 0.5); The result of chi-square test showed that 7 SNPs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in most sheep breeds (P>0.05). Association analysis showed that the polymorphism of one SNP in the LHR gene were significantly correlated with litter size in Small Tail Han sheep (P<0.05), and the polymorphism of 2 SNPs were extremely significantly correlated with litter size in Small Tail Han sheep (P<0.01). The preliminary results of this study showed that there was a correlation between the polymorphisms of 3 SNPs of LHR gene and litter size in Small Tail Han sheep, and the LHR gene may be involved in the regulation of prolificacy in Small Tail Han sheep.

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