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Molecular characterization, expression profile of the FSHR gene and its association with egg production traits in muscovy duck

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Abstract

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and its receptor play a key role in the follicular development and regulation of steroidogenesis in the ovary and spermatogenesis in the testis. The purpose of this study was to characterize the muscovy duck FSHR gene, identify SNPs and their association with egg production traits in muscovy ducks. Here, we cloned the complementary DNA (cDNA) sequence of FSHR, and examined the expression patterns of FSHR gene in adult female muscovy duck tissues. The cloned cDNA of the muscovy duck FSHR gene shared high similarity to those of pekin duck (Anas platyrhynchos) (95.7%) and chicken (93.2%). Three different muscovy duck FSHR transcripts were identified. Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) results showed that the FSHR gene was expressed in all the 14 tested tissues, and the highest expression level was seen in the ovary. A total of 16 SNPs were identified, among which, four SNPs were located in the coding region of FSHR. The SNP C320T is significantly associated with egg production at 59 weeks of age (\(P < 0.05\)), whereas the SNP A227G is significantly associated with age at first egg stage (\(P< 0.05\)). These results suggest that the two SNPs (A227G and C320T) of FSHR gene are associated with egg production traits and could be potential markers that can be used for marker-assisted selection programmes to increase egg production in muscovy duck.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong province (2013B020201005) and Project of Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture (2016LM1113), China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Jiguo Xu, Xinfeng Gao, Xing Li, Qiao Ye, Endashaw Jebessa, Bahareldin Ali Abdalla & Qinghua Nie

  2. Key Lab of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, Guangzhou, 510642, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Jiguo Xu, Xinfeng Gao, Xing Li, Qiao Ye, Endashaw Jebessa, Bahareldin Ali Abdalla & Qinghua Nie

Authors
  1. Jiguo Xu
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  2. Xinfeng Gao
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  3. Xing Li
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  4. Qiao Ye
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  5. Endashaw Jebessa
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  6. Bahareldin Ali Abdalla
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  7. Qinghua Nie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qinghua Nie.

Additional information

Xu J., Gao X., Li X., Ye Q., Jebessa E., Abdalla B. A. and Nie Q. 2017 Molecular characterization, expression profile of the FSHR gene and its association with egg production traits in muscovy duck. J. Genet. 96, xx–xx.

Corresponding editor: Silvia Garagna

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Xu, J., Gao, X., Li, X. et al. Molecular characterization, expression profile of the FSHR gene and its association with egg production traits in muscovy duck. J Genet 96, 341–351 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-017-0783-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-017-0783-x

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