Service Communautaire d'Information sur la Recherche et le Développement - CORDIS

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms

A list of candidate genes was identified based on their likely involvement in muscle development or composition. Several sources of information were used in an integrative approach that incorporated the knowledge from genomic studies, cellular and developmental biology and muscle science. A total of 525 candidate genes were identified and sufficient sequence information was available to design primers for 365 of these candidate genes to carry out resequencing to look for polymorphisms. The primers designed for 365 candidate genes allowed 917 separate PCR fragments to be analysed. A total of 729 SNPs were identified in 208 genes (3.5 SNPs per gene), against a target of identifying 700 SNPs. Analysis of the length of sequence vs number of SNPs provides and estimated that one SNP occurs on average every 410 bp., however the density of SNPs is not uniform, with some genes showing much greater genetic variation than others. These fragments ranged in size from 123 bp to 1747 bp with an average of 2.5 fragments per gene. Polymorphisms were discovered in 316 fragments from 208 different genes. The number of SNP identified per fragment ranged from 1 to 16 (2.22 on average). The number of SNPs per gene ranged from 1 to 27, but in addition 98 genes did not show any polymorphism.

The polymorphisms identified in these candidate genes can be used to investigating the role of the genes in controlling variation in meat quality and growth traits and in eg muscle biology. The markers could also be used for tracking animal products. The markers will be made publicly available so they can be used in further research programmes.

Informations connexes

Reported by

Roslin Institute
Roslin Institute
EH25 9PS Roslin
United Kingdom
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