The gene for agouti signaling protein (ASIP) is centrally involved in the expression of coat color traits in animals. The Mangalitza pig breed is characterized by a black-and-tan phenotype with black dorsal pigmentation and yellow or white ventral pigmentation. We investigated a Mangalitza x Piétrain cross and observed a coat color segregation pattern in the F2 generation that can be explained by virtue of two alleles at the MC1R locus and two alleles at the ASIP locus. Complete linkage of the black-and-tan phenotype to microsatellite alleles at the ASIP locus on SSC 17q21 was observed. Corroborated by the knowledge of similar mouse coat color mutants, it seems therefore conceivable that the black-and-tan pigmentation of Mangalitza pigs is caused by an ASIP allele a(t), which is recessive to the wild-type allele A. Toward positional cloning of the a(t) mutation, a 200-kb genomic BAC/PAC contig of this chromosomal region has been constructed and subsequently sequenced. Full-length ASIP cDNAs obtained by RACE differed in their 5' untranslated regions, whereas they shared a common open reading frame. Comparative sequencing of all ASIP exons and ASIP cDNAs between Mangalitza and Piétrain pigs did not reveal any differences associated with the coat color phenotype. Relative qRT-PCR analyses showed different dorsoventral skin expression intensities of the five ASIP transcripts in black-and-tan Mangalitza. The a(t) mutation is therefore probably a regulatory ASIP mutation that alters its dorsoventral expression pattern.
Background: The generation of BAC/PAC contigs in targeted genome regions is a powerful method to establish high-resolution physical maps. In domestic animal species the generation of such contigs is typically initiated with the screening of libraries with probes derived from human genes that are expected to be located in the region of interest by comparative mapping. However, in many instances the available gene-derived probes are too far apart to allow the cloning of BAC/ PAC contigs larger than a few hundred kb. High resolution physical mapping allows to estimate the sizes of gaps and to control the orientation of the individual sub-contigs, which helps to avoid errors during the assembly of smaller contigs into final Mb-sized contigs. The recently constructed porcine IMNpRH2 panel allowed us to use this approach for the construction of high-resolution physical maps of SSC 6q1.2.
TYK2 is a member of the janus protein kinase family and plays an important role in the signal transduction of various cytokines including interferon α/β. Cloning and characterization of the porcine TYK2 gene revealed a conserved organization with respect to other mammalian TYK2 orthologs. The porcine gene consists of 25 exons spanning approximately 26 kb and encoding a 5.3-kb mRNA. It is located in a GC-rich and gene-rich chromosome region and contains several CpG islands. The predicted 132-kDa TYK2 protein consists of 1,184 amino acids and shows 85% identity to the human TYK2 protein. The porcine TYK2 gene was localized by FISH and RH-mapping on SSC 2q1.3→q2.1, which is in good agreement with established human-mouse-pig comparative maps.
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