文献类型： 外文期刊

作者： Hu, Wen-Ping ¹ ; Liu, Ming-Qiu ¹ ; Tian, Zhi-Long ¹ ; Liu, Qiu-Yue ³ ; Zhang, Zhuang-Biao ¹ ; Tang, Ji-Shun ¹ ; He, Xi ¹ ;

作者机构： 1.Chinese Acad Agr Sci, Inst Anim Sci, Minist Agr & Rural Affairs, Key Lab Anim Genet & Breeding & Reprod, Beijing, Peoples R China

2.Bengbu Med Coll, Dept Biol Sci, Bengbu 233030, Peoples R China

3.Chinese Acad Sci, Innovat Acad Seed Design, Inst Genet & Dev Biol, Beijing, Peoples R China

4.Anhui Acad Agr Sci, Inst Anim Husb & Vet Med, Hefei, Peoples R China

关键词： litter size; ovarian steroidogenesis pathway; sheep; STAR

期刊名称：VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SCIENCE （ 影响因子：0.954； ）

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收录情况： SCI

摘要： Background Litter size is an important factor that significantly affects the development of the sheep industry. Our previous TMT proteomics analysis found that three key proteins in the ovarian steroidogenesis pathway, STAR, HSD3B1, and CYP11A1, may affect the litter size trait of Small Tail Han sheep. Objective The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between polymorphisms of these three genes and litter size. Material and Method Sequenom MassARRAY detected genetic variance of the three genes in 768 sheep. Real-time qPCR of the three genes was used to compare their expression in monotocous and polytocous sheep in relevant tissues. Finally, bioinformatics analysis predicted the protein sequences of the different SNP variants. Result Association analysis showed that there was a significant difference in litter size among the genotypes at two loci of the CYP11A1 gene (p < 0.05), but no significant difference was observed in litter size among all genotypes at all loci of the STAR and HSD3B1 genes (p > 0.05). However, STAR expression was significantly different in polytocous and monotocous sheep in the pituitary (p < 0.01). Tissue-specific expression in the ovary was observed for HSD3B1 (p < 0.05), but its expression was not different between polytocous and monotocous sheep. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the g.33217408C > T mutation of CYP11A1 resulted in major changes to the secondary and tertiary structures. In contrast, gene polymorphisms in STAR and HSD3B1 had minimal impacts on their protein structures. Discussion This may explain why the CYP11A1 variant impacted litter size while the others did not. The single nucleotide polymorphism of the CYP11A1 gene would serve as a good molecular marker when breeding to increase litter size in sheep. Our study provides a basis for further revealing the function of the ovarian steroidogenesis pathway in sheep reproduction and sheep breeding.