Li Z, Liu X, Li Y, Wang W, Wang N, Xiao F, Gao H, Guo H, Li H, Wang S
Key Laboratory of Chicken Genetics and Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Harbin 150030, China; Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Education Department of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin 150030, China; College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
Fujian Sunnzer Biotechnology Development Co., Ltd, 354100, Guangze, Fujian Province, China.
Domest Anim Endocrinol. 2021 Jul;76:106631. doi: 10.1016/j.domaniend.2021.106631. Epub 2021 Apr 15.
CCAAT enhancer binding protein ζ (C/EBPζ) plays an important role in adipose proliferation and differentiation in humans. However, very little is known about the effect of C/EBPζ on the growth and development of adipose tissues in domesticated animals. The present study attempted to investigate the mRNA expression profiles of chicken C/EBPζ in a variety of tissues; analyze the association of its variants with abdominal fat; and identify the functional variants for abdominal fat. The tissue expression profiles revealed that C/EBPζ was highly expressed in 19 tissues obtained from broilers. The expression level of C/EBPζ in fat broilers was significantly lower than that in lean broilers in the duodenum, ileum, cecum, kidney, pectoral muscle, and liver (P < 0.05). Among 170 polymorphic loci of C/EBPζ, 9 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) demonstrated a significant association with chicken abdominal fat traits (P < 0.05) as well as significant discrepancies in their allelic frequencies between fat and lean birds. Particularly, only C/EBPζ g.7085A>C exhibited significant correlation with abdominal fat traits (P < 0.00015) using the Bonferroni method. The results revealed that, in preadipocyte immortalized cells (ICPI), the luciferase activity of the A allele of g.7085A>C locus was remarkably stronger than that of the C allele (P < 0.05). In silico analysis showed that g.7085A>C locus was located in the binding region of the transcription factor SOX5, which possesses the ability to transform C/EBPζ transcription efficiency through binding with SOX5. In summary, the data obtained from this study suggested that C/EBPζ is a potential candidate gene responsible for abdominal fat deposition in chicken and that g.7085A>C is a functional SNP that can be promisingly leveraged for marker assisted selection (MAS) in future chicken breeding programs.
CCAAT增强子结合蛋白ζ（C/EBPζ）在人类脂肪组织的增殖和分化中发挥着重要作用。然而，关于C/EBPζ对家畜脂肪组织生长发育的影响，人们了解甚少。本研究旨在探究鸡C/EBPζ在多种组织中的mRNA表达谱；分析其变异与腹部脂肪的关联；并鉴定影响腹部脂肪的功能性变异。组织表达谱显示，C/EBPζ在肉鸡的19种组织中高表达。在十二指肠、回肠、盲肠、肾脏、胸肌和肝脏中，脂肪型肉鸡的C/EBPζ表达水平显著低于瘦型肉鸡（P < 0.05）。在C/EBPζ的170个多态位点中，9个单核苷酸多态性（SNP）与鸡腹部脂肪性状显著相关（P < 0.05），且脂肪型和瘦型鸡之间的等位基因频率存在显著差异。特别是，使用Bonferroni方法分析发现，只有C/EBPζ g.7085A>C与腹部脂肪性状显著相关（P < 0.00015）。结果表明，在前体脂肪细胞永生化细胞（ICPI）中，g.7085A>C位点A等位基因的荧光素酶活性明显强于C等位基因（P < 0.05）。生物信息学分析表明，g.7085A>C位点位于转录因子SOX5的结合区域，SOX5能够通过与C/EBPζ结合来改变其转录效率。总之，本研究获得的数据表明，C/EBPζ是鸡腹部脂肪沉积的潜在候选基因，g.7085A>C是一个功能性SNP，有望在未来的鸡育种计划中用于标记辅助选择（MAS）。
