The InDel variants of sheep IGF2BP1 gene are associated with growth traits

Abstract

Insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 1 (IGF2BP1) plays positive roles in the growth, proliferation of cells and early embryos development by binding mRNA targets. Recently, it had been shown that some polymorphic loci within IGF2BP1 gene were associated with growth traits in animals, especially in goats. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that some variants within IGF2BP1 gene may be also involved in growth traits of sheep. Nine insertion/deletion (InDel) mutations within IGF2BP1 were identified and three loci were polymorphic. Meanwhile, the association analyses between three InDels and growth traits were carried out in 745 sheep. The results showed that all InDels included 5 bp InDel in downstream region, 9 bp InDel in intron 4 and 15 bp InDel in intron 2 within IGF2BP1 were significantly associated with growth traits (p<.05). Furthermore, at 5 and 9 bp InDel loci, the individuals of heterozygous genotype (ID) had superior growing performance especially at body weight (BW). In all, three InDels were crucial variants correlated with growth traits and could be applied in marker-assisted selection (MAS) in sheep.

Keywords:

• Ovis aries
• IGF2BP1
• InDel
• growth traits
• association analyses

Acknowledgments

We greatly thank for the samples supported from Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. We also greatly appreciate the Life Science Research Core Services (LSRCS) of Northwest A&F University (Northern Campus) for providing us with the platform. We appreciate the staff, such as Ph.D. Guoping Zhang and Prof. Enliang Song, from Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences for providing samples and phenotypic traits data of LXBH. We also appreciate the staff from Shandong Key Lab of Animal Disease Control and Breeding, Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan for their cooperation.

Disclosure statement

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

Author contributions

Hongwei Xu, Xianyong Lan, Xiukai Cao and Chuanying Pan designed the study. Hongfei Liu wrote the article. Hongfei Liu performed the experiments. Hongfei Liu did the statistical analysis. Xianyong Lan, Chuanying Pan and Xiukai Cao edited and reviewed the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural and Science Foundation of China [No.32060741] and the Open Project Program of Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety and the Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University [JILAR: JILAR-KF202019].