Evaluation of effects of multiple candidate genes (LEP, LEPR, MC4R, PIK3C3, and VRTN) on production traits in Duroc pigs. (15th October 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hirose, Kensuke; Ito, Tetsuya; Fukawa, Kazuo; Arakawa, Aisaku; Mikawa, Satoshi; Hayashi, Yoichi; Tanaka, Kazuaki
• Is Part Of: Animal science journal. Volume 85:Number 3(2014:Mar.)
• Page Start: 198
• Page End: 206
• Publication Date: 2013-10-15
• Subjects: Animal culture -- Periodicals; Livestock -- Periodicals; 636
• DOI: 10.1111/asj.12134
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1344-3941

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>We evaluated multiple effects of genetic variations of five candidate loci (<italic>LEP</italic>, <italic>LEPR</italic>, <italic>MC4R</italic>, <italic>PIK3C3</italic> and <italic>VRTN</italic>) on four production traits (average daily weight gain (ADG); backfat thickness (BFT); loin eye muscle area (EMA); and intramuscular fat content (IMF)) in a closed nucleus herd of pure Duroc pigs. Polymorphisms in <italic>LEPR</italic>, <italic>MC4R</italic> and <italic>PIK3C3</italic> had significant single gene effects on ADG and BFT. The additive genetic variance in ADG and BFT (16.99% and 22.51%, respectively) was explained by genetic effects of these three loci. No correlations were observed between the <italic>LEP</italic> genotype and production traits in this study. Although we detected marginally epistatic interactions between <italic>LEPR</italic> and <italic>PIK3C3</italic> on the eye muscle area, there were no significant epistatic effects on any traits among all loci pairs. These results suggest that <italic>LEPR</italic>, <italic>MC4R</italic>, <italic>PIK3C3</italic> and <italic>VRTN</italic> may independently influence growth rate and fat deposition. Furthermore, the statistical models for predicting the breeding values of each trait had the lowest Akaike's information criterion values when considering the effect of the <italic>MC4R</italic>, <italic>LEPR</italic>, <italic>PIK3C3</italic> and <italic>VRTN</italic> genotype simultaneously. These results suggest that <italic>LEPR</italic>, <italic>MC4R</italic>, <italic>PIK3C3</italic> and <italic>VRTN</italic> are useful markers for accurately predicting breeding values in Duroc pigs.</p> </abstract>