Intestinal Fatty Acid Binding Protein Gene Variation in European Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Abstract

Fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs), which belong to the multigene family, play an important role in homeostasis, lipid uptake and transport in tissues. Intestinal fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP) is a small cytosolic protein and is highly active in intracellular fatty acid metabolism in fish gut. The European Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is an important commercial marine fish species in the Mediterranean region. In the present study, the partial I-FABP gene region of European sea bass was sequenced for detecting single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) using DNA sequencing. We identified one SNP (g.2450T>C) in the noncoding region of the I-FABP gene in European sea bass. In this study, the relationship between the g.2450T>C locus of the I-FABP (fabp2) gene and body length, post-anal length, body weight and fillet weight was found significant (PC locus in I-FABP which could affect growth and muscle fat content, can be used for marker-assisted selection (MAS) studies in European sea bass.