Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Feb 9:12:24.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2156-12-24.

Association and haplotype analysis of candidate genes in five genomic regions linked to sow maternal infanticide in a white Duroc × Erhualian resource population

Congying Chen  1 , Zhuqing Yang, Yanying Li, Na Wei, Pinghua Li, Yuanmei Guo, Jun Ren, Nengshui Ding, Lusheng Huang
Affiliations

Association and haplotype analysis of candidate genes in five genomic regions linked to sow maternal infanticide in a white Duroc × Erhualian resource population

Congying Chen et al. BMC Genet. .

Abstract

Background: Maternal infanticide is an extreme and failed maternal behavior, which is defined as an active attack on piglets using the jaws, resulting in serious or fatal bite wounds. It brings big economic loss to the pig industry and severe problems to piglets' welfare. But little is known about the genetic background of this behavior. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for maternal infanticide were identified in a White Duroc × Erhualian intercross by a non-parametric linkage analysis (NPL) in our previous study. In this study, associations of 194 microsatellite markers used in NPL analysis with maternal infanticide behavior were further analyzed by transmission-disequilibrium test (TDT). On this basis, seven genes (ESR2, EAAT2, BDNF, OXTR, 5-HTR2C, DRD1 and GABRA6) at five genomic regions were selected and further analyzed. Associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes in each gene with maternal infanticide behavior were evaluated.

Results: Microsatellite markers on pig chromosome (SSC) 2, 13, 15, and X displayed significance at P < 0.05 by both TDT and NPL. Of the seven candidate genes, three ESR2 SNPs had nominal evidence for association (P < 0.05). Allele A at EAAT2 g. 233G > A and allele T at DRD1 g.1013C > G > T also showed evidence of overtransmission to infanticidal sows. In the overall tests of association of haplotypes, candidate genes of ESR2, EAAT2 and DRD1 achieved overall significance level (P < 0.05). Haplotype [A; A; G], [G; A; G], [A; G; G] and [C; C], respectively, from ESR2, EAAT2 and DRD1 showed higher frequencies to infanticidal sows (P < 0.05). Alleles among haplotypes and SNPs which showed an overtransmission to infanticidal sows were from White Duroc.

Conclusions: From association tests of SNPs and haplotypes, ESR2, EAAT2 and DRD1 showed significant associations with maternal infanticide. This result supported the existence of QTL for maternal infanticide behavior on SSC1, SSC2 and SSC16.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Knap PW, Merks JWM. A note on the genetics of aggressiveness of primiparous sows towards their piglets. Livest. Pro. Sci. 1987;17:161–167. doi: 10.1016/0301-6226(87)90061-3. - DOI
    1. van der Steen HA, Schaeffer LR, de Jong H, de Groot PN. Aggressive behavior of sows at parturition. J. Anim. Sci. 1988;66:271–279. - PubMed
    1. Chen C, Gilbert CL, Yang G, Guo Y, Segonds-Pichon A, Ma J, Brenig B, Sargent CA, Affara NA, Huang L. Maternal infanticide in sows: Incidence and behavioural comparisons between savaging and non-savaging sows at parturition. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 2008;109:238–248. doi: 10.1016/j.applanim.2007.02.008. - DOI
    1. Quilter CR, Blott SC, Wilson AE, Bagga MR, Sargent CA, Oliver GL, Southwood OI, Gilbert CL, Mileham A, Affara NA. Porcine maternal infanticide as a model for puerperal psychosis. Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 2007;144:862–868. - PubMed
    1. Chen C, Guo Y, Yang G, Yang Z, Zhang Z, Yang B, Yan X, Perez-Enciso M, Ma J, Duan Y, Brenig B, Huang L. A genome wide detection of quantitative trait loci on pig maternal infanticide behavior in a large scale White Duroc × Erhualian resource population. Behav. Genet. 2009;39:213–219. doi: 10.1007/s10519-008-9252-x. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources