College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450046, China.
Henan Key laboratory for innovation and utilization of chicken germplasm resources, Zhengzhou, 450046, China.
BMC Genomics. 2022 Feb 16;23(1):138. doi: 10.1186/s12864-022-08362-6.
Molecular breeding accelerates the speed of animal breeding. Screening molecular markers that can affect economic traits through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can provide a theoretical basis for molecular breeding. At present, a large number of molecular markers have been screened in poultry research, but few reports on how molecular markers affect economic traits exist. It is particularly important to reveal the action mechanisms of molecular markers, which can provide more accurate information for molecular breeding.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between two indels (NUDT15-indel-2777 and NUDT15-indel-1673) in the promoter region of NUDT15 and growth and carcass traits in chickens and to explore the regulatory mechanism of NUDT15. Significant differences were found in genotype and allele frequencies among commercial broilers, commercial laying hens and dual-purpose chickens. The results of association analyses showed that these two indel loci could significantly affect growth traits, such as body weight, and carcass traits. Tissue expression profiling at E12 showed that the expression of NUDT15 was significantly higher in skeletal muscle, and time-expression profiling of leg muscle showed that the expression of NUDT15 in myoblasts was significantly higher in the E10 and E12 proliferation stages than in other stages. Promoter activity analysis showed that pro-1673-I and pro-1673-D significantly inhibited promoter activity, and the promoter activity of pro-1673-D was significantly lower than that of pro-1673-I. In addition, when NUDT15 was overexpressed or underwent interference in chicken primary myoblasts (CPMs), NUDT15 could inhibit the proliferation of CPMs.
The results suggest that the studied indels in the promoter region of NUDT15 may regulate the proliferation of CPMs by affecting NUDT15 expression, ultimately affecting the growth and carcass traits of chickens. These indel polymorphisms may be used together as molecular markers for improving economic traits in chickens.
分子育种加速了动物育种的速度。通过全基因组关联研究（GWAS）筛选影响经济性状的分子标记，可以为分子育种提供理论基础。目前，在禽类研究中已经筛选出大量的分子标记，但关于分子标记如何影响经济性状的报道较少。揭示分子标记的作用机制尤为重要，这可以为分子育种提供更准确的信息。
本研究旨在探讨 NUDT15 启动子区的两个插入/缺失（NUDT15-indel-2777 和 NUDT15-indel-1673）与鸡生长和胴体性状的关系，并探讨 NUDT15 的调控机制。在商业肉鸡、商业蛋鸡和兼用型鸡中，发现这两个插入/缺失位点在基因型和等位基因频率上存在显著差异。关联分析结果表明，这两个插入/缺失位点可以显著影响体重等生长性状和胴体性状。E12 时的组织表达谱分析表明，NUDT15 在骨骼肌中的表达显著较高，腿肌的时程表达谱分析表明，NUDT15 在 E10 和 E12 增殖期的成肌细胞中的表达显著高于其他阶段。启动子活性分析表明，pro-1673-I 和 pro-1673-D 显著抑制启动子活性，并且 pro-1673-D 的启动子活性显著低于 pro-1673-I。此外，当 NUDT15 在鸡原代成肌细胞（CPMs）中过表达或受到干扰时，NUDT15 可以抑制 CPMs 的增殖。
研究结果表明，NUDT15 启动子区的研究插入/缺失可能通过影响 NUDT15 的表达来调节 CPMs 的增殖，最终影响鸡的生长和胴体性状。这些插入/缺失多态性可以作为改善鸡经济性状的分子标记一起使用。
