Search for Association between Ovine Wingless-Type MMTV Integration Site Family Member (Wnt10A) Genes with Supernumerary Teat in Ghezel and Romanov Sheep

Subject Areas : Camel

S. Eydivandi ¹ , S. Eghbalsaied ² , M. Momen ³ , E. Khajouei ⁴ , A. Javanmard ⁵ , S.M. Ghoreishifar ⁶

1 - Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Blichers Allé 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark
2 - Transgenesis Center of Excellence, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
3 - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
4 - Department of Animal Breeding and Genomics Center, Wageningen University and Research, the Netherland
5 - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
6 - Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Received: 2021-03-12 Accepted : 2021-09-16 Published : 2022-06-01

Keywords: Sheep, single nucleotide polymorphism, mammary gland, supernumerary teats, WNT signaling,

Abstract :

Supernumerary teats (SNT, polythelia) is a common abnormality in many mammalian species including sheep. Recently, the WNT10A candidate gene has been reported to be associated with regulation of embryonic programming for mammary gland connective tissue differentiation and embryogenesis. Here, we propose that variants of this candidate gene may be linked with SNT in Ghezel (GHE) and Romanov (ROM) sheep. Therefore, a case-control study was conducted to uncover this abnormal phenotype. The study group consisted of fifteen individuals which had four functional teats (GHE=10, ROM=5). The control group consisted of thirty individuals which each had two (normal) teats (GHE=20, ROM=10). After extraction of genomic DNA from all samples, the candidate gene region was amplified using routine PCR. Genotyping at the WNT10A gene was performed by sequencing of the purified amplicons. Genotypes and allele frequencies were compared between the two study groups using the χ2 statistical test. A P-value of 0.05 was considered to be the threshold below which all results were significant. No effect of allelic variation (A/G in exon 4) between case and control groups in GHE and ROM sheep was found. In summary, our study provides preliminary results linking candidate gene this single nucleotide polymorphism to SNT in GHE and ROM sheep.

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