Effect of genetic variability of the porcine pituitary-specific transcription factor (PIT-1) on carcas traits in pigs.

Pituitary transcription factor (PIT-1) has been shown to be a positive regulatory factor of growth hormone, prolactin, and thyrotrophin-beta-subunit (TSH-beta) in the mammalian pituitary. Therefore, the gene encoding PIT-1 (POU1F1) was chosen as a candidate gene to investigate its association with growth and carcass traits in pigs. The purpose of this study was to analyse porcine POU1F1 genetic variability in populations of Large White and Large White x landrace pigs, by using PCR-RFLP analysis and to determine its possible associations with two carcass traits (backfat and percentage of lean content). Two different POU1F1-PCR-RFLP (POU1F1/RsaI and POU1F1/MspI) tests were applied to genomic DNA isolated from porcine blood (120 pigs) and hair roots (10 pigs). The present results clearly indicated that the MspI DD genotype was the fattest compared with both other genotypes (CC, CD) in analyzed swine population. For POU1F1/RsaI polymorphism no significance differences were seen for lean-to-fat ratio.