Functional Genome Analysis Research Group, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf, Germany.
J Lipid Res. 2011 Apr;52(4):668-78. doi: 10.1194/jlr.M013342. Epub 2011 Feb 2.
Traits related to fatness, important as economic factors in pork production, are associated with serious diseases in humans. Genetical genomics is a useful approach for studying the effects of genetic variation at the molecular level in biological systems. Here we applied a whole-genome association analysis to hepatic gene expression traits, focusing on transcripts with expression levels that correlated with fatness traits in a porcine model. A total of 150 crossbred pigs [Pietrain × (German Large White × German Landrace)] were studied for transcript levels in the liver. The 24K Affymetrix expression microarrays and 60K Illumina single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips were used for genotyping. A total of 663 genes, whose expression significantly correlated with the trait "fat area," were analyzed for enrichment of functional annotation groups as defined in the Ingenuity Pathways Knowledge Base (IPKB). Genes involved in metabolism of various macromolecules and nutrients as well as functions related to dynamic cellular processes correlated with fatness traits. Regions affecting the transcription levels of these genes were mapped and revealed 4,727 expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) at P < 10⁻⁵, including 448 cis-eQTL. In this study, genome-wide association analysis of trait-correlated expression was successfully used in a porcine model to display molecular networks and list genes relevant to fatness traits.
与肥胖相关的特征是猪肉生产中的重要经济因素，与人类的严重疾病有关。遗传基因组学是研究生物系统中遗传变异在分子水平上影响的一种有用方法。在这里，我们应用全基因组关联分析研究了肝基因表达性状，重点是在猪模型中与肥胖性状相关的表达水平的转录本。总共研究了 150 头杂交猪（皮特兰 × （德国大白猪 × 德国长白猪））的肝脏转录本水平。使用 24K Affymetrix 表达微阵列和 60K Illumina 单核苷酸多态性 (SNP) 芯片进行基因分型。对与性状“脂肪面积”显著相关的 663 个基因进行了功能注释组富集分析，这些基因在 Ingenuity Pathways Knowledge Base (IPKB) 中定义。与肥胖性状相关的基因涉及各种大分子和营养素的代谢以及与动态细胞过程相关的功能。映射影响这些基因转录水平的区域，并在 P < 10⁻⁵处显示了 4,727 个转录水平数量性状位点 (eQTL)，包括 448 个顺式-eQTL。在这项研究中，成功地在猪模型中使用与性状相关的表达全基因组关联分析来显示与肥胖性状相关的分子网络和基因列表。
