A Missense Mutation in the Rabbit Melanocortin 4 Receptor (MC4R) Gene is Associated with Finisching Weight in a Meat Rabbit Line |
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Authors: | Luca Fontanesi Emilio Scotti Katarina Cisarova Piero Di Battista Stefania Dall'Olio Daniela Fornasini |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), Division of Animal Sciences , University of Bologna , Bologna , Italy;2. Centre for Genome Biology, University of Bologna , Bologna , Italy luca.fontanesi@unibo.it;4. Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), Division of Animal Sciences , University of Bologna , Bologna , Italy;5. Gruppo Martini S.p.A., Centro Genetica Conigli (Rabbit Genetic Center) , Longiano (FC) , Italy |
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Abstract: | In this study we resequenced 1729 bp of the rabbit melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4 R) gene in 31 rabbits from different breeds/lines and identified ten polymorphisms: one was an indel and 9 were single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The indel and 5 SNPs were in the 5′-flanking region, 3 were synonymous SNPs and one was a missense mutation (c.101G>A; p.G34D), located in a conserved position of the extracellular tail of the MC4 R protein. The missense mutation was analyzed in a panel of 74 rabbits of different breeds and in 516 performance tested rabbits of a commercial paternal line under selection for growth efficiency. Association analysis indicated that rabbits with the less frequent genotype in this population (DD) had a lighter weight at 70 postnatal days than animals with genotype GD (P < 0.10) and animals with genotype GG (P < 0.05). This is the third study on candidate genes, after those on GH1 and IGF2 that reported a marker associated with finishing weight. Therefore, it seems that a candidate gene approach in rabbit based on previous information accumulated in other livestock species could be useful to identify genes explaining a fraction of variability of performance traits with potential application on rabbit breeding and selection. |
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Keywords: | Association study Growth rate MC4R Meat rabbit SNP |
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