Identification of differentially expressed genes in the oviduct of two rabbit lines divergently selected for uterine capacity using suppression subtractive hybridization

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the following article: Ballester, M.; Castelló, A.; Peiró Barber, RM.; Argente, M. J.;Santacreu Jerez, MA.; Folch, J. M. (2013). Identification of differentially expressed genes in the oviduct of two rabbit lines divergently selected for uterine capacity using suppression subtractive hybridization. Animal Genetics. SummarySuppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) libraries from oviduct at 62h post-mating of two lines of rabbits divergently selected for uterine capacity were generated to identify differentially expressed genes. A total of 438 singletons and 126 contigs were obtained by cluster assembly and sequence alignment of 704 ESTs, from which 54% showed homology to known proteins of the non-redundant NCBI databases. Differential screening by dot-blot validated 71 ESTs, of which 47 showed similarity to known genes. Transcripts of genes were functionally annotated in the molecular function and the biological process gene ontology (GO) categories using the Blast2GO software and were assigned to reproductive developmental process, immune response, amino acid metabolism and degradation, response to stress and apoptosis terms. Finally, three interesting genes, PGR, HSD17B4 and ERO1Lwere identified as overexpressed in the Low line using RT-qPCR. Our study provides a list of candidate genes that can be useful to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the phenotypic differences observed on early embryo survival and development traits.

A genomewide association study in divergently selected lines in rabbits reveals novel genomic regions associated with litter size traits

“…The 1903 window on chromosome 17, associated only with TNB, contains the ERO1A gene. This gene did not show a functional annotation directly related to reproductive processes but was identified as overexpressed between the UC lines in a previous study (Ballester et al, 2013). Moreover, it is the precursor of the ER1L transcript, which is related to redox homeostasis and oxidative protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (Konno et al, 2015).…”

“…Approximately one‐half of the response in UC was obtained in the first two generations suggesting the presence of a major locus with large effect segregating in these populations (Argente, Blasco, Ortega, Haley, & Visscher, ; Blasco et al, ). Thus, a candidate gene strategy was carried out to characterize this locus by comparing polymorphisms and expression levels between the two UC lines of a some promising candidates (Argente et al, ; Ballester et al, ; Peiró et al, ). Some of these genes (progesterone receptor— PGR , hydroxysteroid (17‐beta) dehydrogenase 4 —HSD17B4 , and endoplasmic reticulum oxidoreductase 1— ERO1 ) showed different expression levels in the oviduct of the two UC line, remarkably overexpressed in the low UC line, but these result could not identify any putative causal mutations (Argente et al, ; Ballester et al, ; Peiró et al, ).…”

Genomic analysis of divergently selected experimental lines in rabbit

“…gene. This gene did not show a functional annotation directly related to reproductive processes but was identified as overexpressed between the UC lines in a previous study (Ballester et al, 2013). Moreover, it is the precursor of the ER1L transcript, which is related to redox homeostasis and oxidative protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (Konno et al, 2015).…”

“…Reticulum Oxidoreductase 1 -ERO1) showed different expression levels in the oviduct of the two UC line, remarkably overexpressed in the low UC line, but these result could not identify any putative causal mutations (Peiró et al, 2008;Argente et al, 2010;Ballester et al, 2013).…”

“…Approximately one-half of the response in UC was obtained in the first two generations suggesting the presence of a major locus with large effect segregating in these populations . Thus, a candidate gene strategy was carried out to characterize this locus by comparing polymorphisms and expression levels between the two UC lines of some promising candidates (Peiró et al, 2008;Argente et al, 2010;Ballester et al, 2013). Some of these genes (progesterone receptor -PGR, hydroxysteroid (17-beta) dehydrogenase 4 -HSD17B4, and Endoplasmic…”