Molecular characterization, expression profile and association analysis with carcass traits of porcine LCAT gene

Mol Biol Rep. 2010 Jun;37(5):2227-34. doi: 10.1007/s11033-009-9709-x. Epub 2009 Aug 12.

Abstract

The lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase gene (LCAT) plays an important role in lipoprotein metabolism, especially in the process termed 'reverse cholesterol transport'. In this study, we obtained the 1,434 bp mRNA sequence of porcine LCAT including the full coding region and encoding a protein of 472 amino acids. The sequence was deposited into the GenBank under the accession no. EU717835. The genomic sequence of this gene which contains six exons and five introns, is 3,712 bp in length (GQ379050). Bioinformatic analysis of the 5' regulatory region has revealed that some transcription factor Sp1, AP-1, AP-2 and NF-kappaB were represented in this region. Tissue expression analysis showed that the porcine LCAT gene is ubiquitously expressed in all examined tissues. Phylogenetic tree was constructed by aligning the amino acid sequences of different species. Moreover, we found a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, C/G266) in intron 1 of the LCAT gene and association analysis showed that it was significantly associated with ratio of lean to fat (P < 0.05), caul fat weight (P < 0.01), leaf fat weight (P < 0.05), carcass length (P < 0.05) and bone percentage (P < 0.05). Our study will lay the groundwork for the further investigations on the detailed physiological function of LCAT in pig models.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • 5' Flanking Region / genetics
  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Breeding
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic*
  • Gene Frequency / genetics
  • Genetic Association Studies*
  • Genotype
  • Meat*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phosphatidylcholine-Sterol O-Acyltransferase / genetics*
  • Phylogeny
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic / genetics
  • Quantitative Trait, Heritable*
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Sus scrofa / genetics*

Substances

  • Phosphatidylcholine-Sterol O-Acyltransferase

Associated data

  • GENBANK/EU717835