Abstract
BackgroundMolecular breeding accelerates the speed of animal breeding. Screening molecular markers that can affect economic traits through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can provide a theoretical basis for molecular breeding. At present, a large number of molecular markers have been screened in poultry research, but few reports on how molecular markers affect economic traits exist. It is particularly important to reveal the action mechanisms of molecular markers, which can provide more accurate information for molecular breeding.ResultsThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between two indels (NUDT15-indel-2777 and NUDT15-indel-1673) in the promoter region of NUDT15 and growth and carcass traits in chickens and to explore the regulatory mechanism of NUDT15. Significant differences were found in genotype and allele frequencies among commercial broilers, commercial laying hens and dual-purpose chickens. The results of association analyses showed that these two indel loci could significantly affect growth traits, such as body weight, and carcass traits. Tissue expression profiling at E12 showed that the expression of NUDT15 was significantly higher in skeletal muscle, and time-expression profiling of leg muscle showed that the expression of NUDT15 in myoblasts was significantly higher in the E10 and E12 proliferation stages than in other stages. Promoter activity analysis showed that pro-1673-I and pro-1673-D significantly inhibited promoter activity, and the promoter activity of pro-1673-D was significantly lower than that of pro-1673-I. In addition, when NUDT15 was overexpressed or underwent interference in chicken primary myoblasts (CPMs), NUDT15 could inhibit the proliferation of CPMs.ConclusionThe results suggest that the studied indels in the promoter region of NUDT15 may regulate the proliferation of CPMs by affecting NUDT15 expression, ultimately affecting the growth and carcass traits of chickens. These indel polymorphisms may be used together as molecular markers for improving economic traits in chickens.
Highlights
IntroductionScreening molecular markers that can affect economic traits through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can provide a theoretical basis for molecular breeding
Molecular breeding accelerates the speed of animal breeding
This study aimed to explore the effects of indels in the promoter region of NUDT15 on the growth and carcass traits of the F2 resource group and on the proliferation of chicken primary myoblasts (CPMs)
Summary
Screening molecular markers that can affect economic traits through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can provide a theoretical basis for molecular breeding. A large number of molecular markers have been screened in poultry research, but few reports on how molecular markers affect economic traits exist. It is important to reveal the action mechanisms of molecular markers, which can provide more accurate information for molecular breeding. Studies of the molecular mechanisms of monogenic traits are widely pursued in the molecular breeding of animals and plants due to the unique genotype–phenotype associations of these traits [1, 2]. The currently reported candidate genes cannot fully explain the genetic variation in growth contributed by this QTL interval
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