Analysis of the eighth intron polymorphism of NR6A1 gene in sheep and its correlation with lumbar spine number

Abstract

For revealing molecular markers related to the traits of multiple lumbar vertebrae in sheep, we analyze the relationship between NR6A1 gene polymorphism and lumbar vertebrae number traits in Xinjiang Kazakh sheep. Lumbar muscle tissues were collected from 6-lumbar spine (L6) Kazak sheep and 7-lumbar spine (L7) Kazak sheep and the intron-8 of NR6A1 gene was amplified by PCR. The SNP locus was detected by the PCR-SSCP method. One-Way ANOVA and an Independent Chi-square Test is adopted to analyze the genotype association with lumbar spine number variation. There were two SNP loci in the intron-8 of the NR6A1 gene: IVS8-188 and IVS8-281. One-Way ANOVA and Independent Chi-square Test indicated a significant association between IVS8-281 and lumbar spine number. The SNP locus of NR6A1 gene intron 8 (IVS8-281G > A) could play a certain role in the variation of lumbar spine number in Xinjiang Kazakh sheep and demonstrates potential to accelerate the sheep breeding of selection process.

Keywords:

• Xinjiang Kazakh sheep
• multiple lumbar vertebrae
• NR6A1
• SNP
• PCR-SSCP

Authors’ contributions

Shengwei Hu, Yunfeng Zhang, and Cunyuan Li conceived and designed the experiments. Cunyuan Li and Kaiping Liu collected the samples and recorded the phenotypes.Taotao Mi, Tao Guo, Lei Li, Yue Wang, Jihong Dai and Yuying Cui extracted the DNA for genotyping. Kaiping Liu and Taotao Mi performed the PCR-SSCP. Taotao Mi and Tao Guo analyzed the data. Taotao Mi and Tao Guo wrote and revised the manuscript.

Ethics approval

All experimental operations and surgical operations involving sheep in this study were performed by the Regulations on the Administration of Laboratory Animals (State Council of China, No. 676; revised March 2017) and approved by the Shihezi University Institutional Animal Conservation and Utilization Committee (SUACUC-08032).

Consent to participate

All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the conclusions of this study are given in the text and supplementary material of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The Bingtuan Science and Technology Project [2018BC011, 2019AB034], the foundation of state key laboratory for sheep genetic improvement and healthy production [MYSKLKF201901, 2021ZD08] and the Young innovative talents [2017CB003, CXRC201603, and CXRC201806] supported this work.