Alternative polyadenylation and polymorphisms of 3'untranslated regions of bovine BBOX1 gene

Abstract

l-Carnitine, a key element in fatty acid metabolism and energy production, is biosynthesized from gamma-butyro-betaine by the catalysis of gamma-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (BBOX1). We cloned three different 3'untranslated regions (3'UTRs) alternative polyadenylation (APA) transcripts of the BBOX1 gene with different 3'UTR length (GenBank Accession Nos. KX431577, KX431578, KX431579). Two polymorphisms, NM_001101881.2: g.1797_1798insTGC and g.1935T>C, were revealed in 3'UTR of BBOX1 gene. They created or disrupted a restriction site for endonuclease BbvI and HincII, respectively. Moreover, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) g.1935T>C can create or disrupt polyadenylation signals PAS3 resulting in the presence of APA3 transcript variant. Marker-trait association analyses showed that the BBOX1-BbvI and BBOX1-HincII loci were significantly associated with muscle fibre diameter, shear force, net meat weight, and carcass weight (P < 0.01). Moreover, we also found a significant association of combined genotypes with cooking loss, muscle fibre diameter, shear force, net meat weight, and carcass weight (P < 0.01). The results of this study provide the evidence that polymorphisms in BBOX1 gene are associated with meat quality and carcass traits in Chinese Red cattle, and may be used as a candidate for marker assisted selection in beef cattle breeding program.

Keywords

• candidate gene
• transcript variants
• meat quality
• carcass traits
• association analysis