Abstract
ObjectiveThe vertebral number is associated with body length and carcass traits, which represents an economically important trait in farm animals. The variation of vertebral number has been observed in a few mammalian species. However, the variation of vertebral number and quantitative trait loci in sheep breeds have not been well addressed.MethodsIn our investigation, the information including gender, age, carcass weight, carcass length and the number of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae from 624 China Kazakh sheep was collected. The effect of vertebral number variation on carcass weight and carcass length was estimated by general linear model. Further, the polymorphic sites of Vertnin (VRTN) gene were identified by sequencing, and the association of the genotype and vertebral number variation was analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance model.ResultsThe variation of thoracolumbar vertebrae number in Kazakh sheep (18 to 20) was smaller than that in Texel sheep (17 to 21). The individuals with 19 thoracolumbar vertebrae (T13L6) were dominant in Kazakh sheep (79.2%). The association study showed that the numbers of thoracolumbar vertebrae were positively correlated with the carcass length and carcass weight, statistically significant with carcass length. To investigate the association of thoracolumbar vertebrae number with VRTN gene, we genotyped the VRTN gene. A total of 9 polymorphic sites were detected and only a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs426367238) was suggested to associate with thoracic vertebral number statistically.ConclusionThe variation of thoracolumbar vertebrae number positively associated with the carcass length and carcass weight, especially with the carcass length. VRTN gene polymorphism of the SNP (rs426367238) with significant effect on thoracic vertebral number could be as a candidate marker to further evaluate its role in influence of thoracolumbar vertebral number.
Highlights
In mammals, the vertebrate spinal column comprises a series of repeating bones called vertebrae, including the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal vertebrae
The degree of vertebral number variation In present investigation, a total of 624 Chinese Kazakh sheep were sampled for phenotype data including gender, age, CW, CL, and the number of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae
Individuals with 7 lumbar vertebrae accounted for relatively larger proportion in Texel and Scottish Blackface sheep (35.4% and 60.8%, respec tively) [3,16], but those have not been found in Kazakh sheep
Summary
The vertebrate spinal column comprises a series of repeating bones called vertebrae, including the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal vertebrae. The number of vertebrae is relatively conserved in most mammalian species [1], whereas the variation in thoracic, lumbar and thoracolumbar (the summation of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae) numbers has been observed in a number of mammalian species, such as pig [2], sheep [3], and human [4]. The range of thoracolumbar number variation in European commercial swine breeds (n = 21 to 23) like Large White and Landrace was larger than that in Asian breeds (n = 19 to 20) [2]. The range of variation was observed between European ovine breeds (n = 17 to 21) like Texel and Scottish Blackface and Chinese indigenous breeds (n = 19 to 21) like Mongolia Sheep [3,5]. The number of thoracolumbar vertebrae is associated with body length and carcass traits, and www.ajas.info
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