Association of a single nucleotide polymorphism in akirin 2 gene with marbling in Japanese Black beef cattle

Abstract

BackgroundMarbling defined by the amount and distribution of intramuscular fat, so-called Shimofuri, is an economically important trait of beef cattle in Japan. The c17-25 expressed sequence tag (EST) has been previously shown to possess expression difference in musculus longissimus muscle between low-marbled and high-marbled steer groups, and to be located within genomic region of a quantitative trait locus for marbling. Thus, the akirin 2 (AKIRIN2) gene containing the c17-25 EST sequence was considered as a positional functional candidate for the gene responsible for marbling. In this study, we explored single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the AKIRIN2 and analyzed association of the SNP with marbling.FindingsA SNP in the 3' untranslated region of the AKIRIN2, referred to as c.*188G>A, was the only difference detected between high- and low-marbled steer groups. The SNP was associated with marbling in 3 experiments using 100 sires (P = 0.041), 753 paternal half-sib progeny steers from 4 sires heterozygous for the c.*188G>A (P = 0.005), and 730 paternal half-sib progeny steers from 3 sires homozygous for the A allele at the c.*188G>A (P = 0.047), in Japanese Black beef cattle. The effect of genotypes of the SNP on subcutaneous fat thickness was not statistically significant (P > 0.05).ConclusionThese findings suggest that the AKIRIN2 SNP polymorphism is associated with marbling and may be useful for effective marker-assisted selection to increase the levels of marbling in Japanese Black beef cattle.

DNA sequence polymorphisms in a panel of eight candidate bovine imprinted genes and their association with performance traits in Irish Holstein-Friesian cattle

“…This has led some authors to suggest that 3'UTR sequences harbour potentially important DNA sequence variants influencing phenotypes in mammals [90]. This assertion further supported by genetic data from livestock whereby 3'UTR SNPs have been shown to be associated with dairy performance traits in cattle [91,92]. However, while it is tempting to speculate that the non-coding SNPs displaying associations with performance traits in the current study are causal it is more likely that these SNPs are associated (through LD) with causal regulatory mutations (or set of mutations) located proximal to, or within, the genetic loci studied that have not yet been identified.…”

A genome‐wide association study for fat‐related traits computed by image analysis in Japanese Black cattle

“…The mutations in endothelial differentiation sphingolipid G‐protein‐coupled receptor 1 ( EDG1 ), akirin 2 ( AKIRIN2 ), titin ( TTN ) and ribosomal protein L27a ( RPL27A ) have been reported to be associated with beef marbling in Japanese Black cattle (Sasaki et al . ; Yamada et al . ,,,).…”

A critical role for the nuclear protein Akirin2 in the formation of mammalian muscle in vivo

“…Akirin is necessary for Drosophila myogenesis, with mutant flies exhibiting absent, misattached, or duplicate muscles (Nowak et al, 2012). An expanded family of Akirin genes was found to be differentially regulated during myogenesis in salmon (Macqueen, Kristjansson, & Johnston, 2010), and a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the Aki2 gene has been associated with marbling (intramuscular fat) in Japanese beef cattle (Sasaki et al, 2009). In muscle cells in vitro, data suggest that Aki1 (Marshall et al, 2008) and Aki2 (Chen et al, 2017) both can play a myogenic role.…”