Novel polymorphisms in the PLIN2 gene of Nellore cattle.

Inglés. ABSTRACT. Genetic variations in genes involved in lipid storage, which also may interfere with important phenotypic traits such as intramuscular fat deposition in cattle, can represent useful markers in marker assisted selection programs. An important candidate gene is perilipin 2 (PLIN2) that plays a role in the capture of long chain fatty acids and in the formation and stabilization of lipid droplets in different tissues including muscle. As reported by our group, PLIN2 expression level was associated with trans-eQTL (expression quantitative loci distant of gene associated) at chr3: 87, 253, 086 in Nellore cattle, where animals with different genotypes showed different expression level of PLIN2 among the 193 animals and the co-expression analysis detected correlation with intramuscular fat, palmitoleic, oleic and linoleic acids. Then, the objective of this study was to identify and characterize polymorphisms present in the PLIN2 gene of Nellore cattle. To date, there is not much information on mutations in the PLIN2 gene in Bos indicus animals. A total of 134 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in the genomic region of PLIN2 gene and five of those are novel with a moderate impact. These SNPs may change the protein effectiveness and, after further association studies and functional validation, could be used as genomic markers in animal breeding program.

Portugués. Na publicação: Luciana CA Regitano, Adhemar Zerlotini. gmr16039963.