ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2019, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (7): 1340-1346.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2019.07.003

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Tissue Expression Profiles of HMGA1 Gene in Pigs and Its Association with Backfat Thickness

GONG Jianfei1, YUE Jingwei2, ZHAO Lingling1, LIU Yunpeng1, WANG Lixian2, LIU Xin2*, SUN Jinhai1*   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China;
    2. Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2019-01-27 Online:2019-07-23 Published:2019-07-23

Abstract: The aim of this study was to explore the expression profile of HMGA1 gene in different tissues and at different ages in different pig breeds. Additionally, the association between the polymorphisms of the coding region and 3'UTR region and backfat thickness in pigs were analyzed. In this study, real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the difference in mRNA expression of HMGA1 gene in 7 tissues of Large White, and in backfat of Large White and Minzhu at 60-, 150- and 210-day-old. The SNPs in the coding region and 3'UTR region of HMGA1 were detected by DNA re-sequencing in 576 Large White×Minzhu F2 generation resource populations. Then the association analysis between SNPs and backfat thickness (6-7 ribs) were performed with the slaughter weight as a covariate. The results showed that HMGA1 mRNA was widely expressed in various tissues of Large White, and significant difference was showed among different tissues (P<0.05). The expression of HMGA1 mRNA was the highest in the lung, but it was slightly expressed in the heart and muscle tissues. At 60- and 150-day-old, the expression of HMGA1 gene in backfat of Minzhu was significantly higher than that in the Large White (P<0.05), but the difference was not significant at 210-day-old between pig breeds(P>0.05). Thirteen single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites were detected in the coding region of HMGA1, including 2 missense mutations sites:g.3261G>A and g.5818G>A, and the g.3261G >A was significantly associated with backfat thickness (P<0.05). Three SNPs were detected in the 3'UTR region as targets for the binding of microRNAs (miRNAs), the g.7217G>C and g.7280T>C were significantly associated with the backfat thickness(P<0.05). The above results indicate that HMGA1 gene has an effect on the backfat deposition of pigs, and the g.3261G>A, g.7217G>C and g.7280T>C loci can be used as potential molecular markers for the breeding of backfat thickness in pigs, which lay a foundation for the molecular breeding of pigs.

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