Promoter variants of OAS1 gene are associated with reproductive performance and incidence of normal calving in cattle

Abstract

2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) are important components of an interferon-mediated antiviral pathway. But no polymorphisms have yet been identified and associated with reproduction and reproduction traits in the bovine OAS1 gene. The objective of this study was to detect and evaluate the effects of mutations in the promoter region of bovine OAS1 gene with production and reproduction traits in cattle. Two single nuclear polymorphisms were identified, including A to T transversion (rs715937117:A>T) and A to G transition (rs480985443:A>G) and subsequently genotyped in Sahiwal and Frieswal populations. Three haplotypes were constructed including H1 (A-A), H2 (T-A) and H3 (T-G), among them H2 was the most abundant in the Sahiwal (0.677) and Frieswal (0.838) population. The analysis revealed that genotypes of promoter region had significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on age at first breeding, age at first calving, service period and pregnancy rate. The animals with H1H2 diplotype had higher age at first breeding and age at first calving compared to H2H2 genotyped animals. Further logistic regression analysis also revealed that the probability of normal calving was found more in H2H2 diplotype, as the odds ratios of H1H2 and H2H3 in comparison to H2H2 were 0.516 and 0.486, respectively. H2H2 diplotyped animals also exhibited higher milk production also in terms of total milk yield, 300 day milk yield and peak yield. These results outlined that the bovine OAS1 gene can be used as candidate genes for simultaneous improvement of both production and reproductive performance of cattle.