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. 2020 Mar 13;10(3):484.
doi: 10.3390/ani10030484.

Polymorphism of VRTN Gene g.20311_20312ins291 Was Associated with the Number of Ribs, Carcass Diagonal Length and Cannon Bone Circumference in Suhuai Pigs

Nengjing Jiang  1   2 , Chenxi Liu  1   2 , Tingxu Lan  1   2 , Qian Zhang  1   2 , Yang Cao  1   2 , Guang Pu  1   2 , Peipei Niu  2 , Zongping Zhang  2 , Qiang Li  3 , Juan Zhou  3 , Xiaokui Li  4 , Liming Hou  1 , Ruihua Huang  1   2 , Pinghua Li  1   2
Affiliations

Polymorphism of VRTN Gene g.20311_20312ins291 Was Associated with the Number of Ribs, Carcass Diagonal Length and Cannon Bone Circumference in Suhuai Pigs

Nengjing Jiang et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The vertnin (VRTN) gene g.20311_20312ins291 was reported as an important variant related to the number of ribs (RIB), and the ins/ins genotype was advantageous for improving RIB of Western pigs. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the VRTN gene g.20311_20312ins291 influences RIB, carcass traits, and body size traits, including cannon bone circumference (CBC) in Chinese Suhuai pigs. We found that the VRTN gene g.20311_20312ins291 was polymorphic in Suhuai fattening pigs and gilts. The polymorphism of g.20311_20312ins291 was significantly associated with RIB and CDL in Suhuai fattening pigs (p < 0.01), whereas this variant had no influence on carcass weight (CWT). There was a tendency of association between this variant and carcass straight length (CSL) in Suhuai fattening pigs (p = 0.06). The polymorphism of g.20311_20312ins291 was also significantly associated with CBC in Suhuai gilts (p = 0.04). Furthermore, CBC was positively genetically correlated with body length (0.22, p < 0.01) and body weight (0.15, p < 0.01). Our results indicated that the VRTN gene g.20311_20312ins291 could be used as a potential marker for improving RIB, CDL, and CBC in Suhuai pigs.

Keywords: Suhuai pigs; VRTN gene g.20311_20312ins291; cannon bone circumference; the number of ribs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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