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. 2017 Sep;30(9):1234-1238.
doi: 10.5713/ajas.16.0959. Epub 2017 Mar 25.

Effects of vertebral number variations on carcass traits and genotyping of Vertnin candidate gene in Kazakh sheep

Zhifeng Zhang  1   2   3 , Yawei Sun  3   4 , Wei Du  3   4 , Sangang He  3   4 , Mingjun Liu  3   4 , Changyan Tian  1
Affiliations

Effects of vertebral number variations on carcass traits and genotyping of Vertnin candidate gene in Kazakh sheep

Zhifeng Zhang et al. Asian-Australas J Anim Sci. 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: The vertebral number is associated with body length and carcass traits, which represents an economically important trait in farm animals. The variation of vertebral number has been observed in a few mammalian species. However, the variation of vertebral number and quantitative trait loci in sheep breeds have not been well addressed.

Methods: In our investigation, the information including gender, age, carcass weight, carcass length and the number of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae from 624 China Kazakh sheep was collected. The effect of vertebral number variation on carcass weight and carcass length was estimated by general linear model. Further, the polymorphic sites of Vertnin (VRTN) gene were identified by sequencing, and the association of the genotype and vertebral number variation was analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance model.

Results: The variation of thoracolumbar vertebrae number in Kazakh sheep (18 to 20) was smaller than that in Texel sheep (17 to 21). The individuals with 19 thoracolumbar vertebrae (T13L6) were dominant in Kazakh sheep (79.2%). The association study showed that the numbers of thoracolumbar vertebrae were positively correlated with the carcass length and carcass weight, statistically significant with carcass length. To investigate the association of thoracolumbar vertebrae number with VRTN gene, we genotyped the VRTN gene. A total of 9 polymorphic sites were detected and only a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs426367238) was suggested to associate with thoracic vertebral number statistically.

Conclusion: The variation of thoracolumbar vertebrae number positively associated with the carcass length and carcass weight, especially with the carcass length. VRTN gene polymorphism of the SNP (rs426367238) with significant effect on thoracic vertebral number could be as a candidate marker to further evaluate its role in influence of thoracolumbar vertebral number.

Keywords: Carcass Length; Carcass Weight; Lumbar Vertebral Number; Sheep; Thoracic Vertebral Number; Vertnin Gene.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

We certify that there is no conflict of interest with any financial organization regarding the material discussed in the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Variation and frequency of sheep thoracolumbar vertebral number and vertebral formulae. The number of individuals within each phenotype was given in brackets. T12L6, 12 thoracic and 6 lumbar vertebrae; T13L5, 13 thoracic and 5 lumbar vertebrae; T13L6, 13 thoracic and 6 lumbar vertebrae; T14L6, 14 thoracic and 6 lumbar vertebrae.
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