Associations of and polymorphisms, and their expression levels, with Taihang chicken egg-production traits.

Egg production by hens is an important reproductive performance index in the poultry industry. To investigate the effects of the and genes on egg production in chicken, their mRNA expression and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) levels were investigated, and bioinformatics and egg-production association analyses were performed. Three SNPs (g.44069941G > A and g.44069889A > G in and g.10742639C > T in ) were detected in the exons and introns of and in 400 Taihang chickens. Among them, g.44069941G > A was significantly associated with Taihang chicken egg production on the 500th day ( < 0.05), whereas g.10742639C > T was significantly associated with the 300th day ( < 0.05). The expression levels of and in ovarian tissues of a high-yielding Taihang group were greater than in a low-yielding group ( < 0.05). The bioinformatics analysis revealed that the mutations influenced the mRNA secondary structures of and . This study provides new insights into the potential effects of and polymorphisms on chicken egg production. The two SNPs g.44069941G > A and g.10742639C > T are potential molecular markers for improving the reproductive traits of Taihang chicken.