Using high resolution melting analysis to identify variation of NPY, LEP and IGF-1 genes in Angus cattle

• Published in: Livestock science 2012-07, Vol.146 (2-3), p.193-198
• Main Authors: Trujillo, A.I., Peñagaricano, F., Grignola, M.P., Nicolini, P., Casal, A., Espasandín, A.C., Naya, H., Carriquiry, M., Chilibroste, P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: alleles; Angus; Angus breed; calves; energy metabolism; farms; gene frequency; genotyping; HRM; IGF-1; insulin-like growth factor I; Leptin; melting; neuropeptide Y; NPY; promoter regions; single nucleotide polymorphism; SNPs
• ISSN: 1871-1413; 1878-0490
• DOI: 10.1016/j.livsci.2012.03.004

Neuropeptide Y (NPY), leptin (LEP) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) have been proposed as valuable predictors of relative differences among individuals in the regulation of whole-body energy metabolism. The main objective of this study was to assess the allelic frequency of relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NPY, LEP and IGF-1 genes using high resolution melting (HRM) analysis. One hundred thirty six female calves from five Aberdeen Angus stud farms were genotyped. An A/G SNP located in intron 2 of the NPY gene (SNPNPY), a C/T SNP located in exon 2 of the LEP gene (SNPLEP), and a T/C SNP located in the promoter region of IGF-1 gene (SNPIGF-1), were the markers genotyped. The favorable allele frequencies in the whole population were 0.23, 0.48 and 0.39 for SNPNPY, SNPLEP and SNPIGF-1, respectively. The average value of FST for the three SNPs in the whole population was 0.015. The analysis of these SNPs indicated a low frequency of favorable alleles and a high homogeneity of the Angus population evaluated. The HRM genotyping described in this report provides a convenient alternative approach to identify SNPs in bovine genes.