Association of a BTA1 region with age at puberty in Angus bulls

FERNÁNDEZ, ME; PRANDO, A; ROGBERG MUÑOZ, A; PERAL GARCIA, P; BALDO, A; GIOVAMBATTISTA, G; LIRÓN, JP

REPRODUCTION FERTILITY AND DEVELOPMENT

CSIRO PUBLISHING

Lugar: Collingwood; Año: 2015

1031-3613

Age at puberty is an important component of reproductive performance in cattle, so it is important to identify genes that contribute to the regulation of the onset of puberty and polymorphisms that explain differences between bulls. In a previous study, we found putative associations between SNPs in chromosomes 1 and X and age at puberty in Angus bulls. In the present work we aimed to confirm these findings in a larger sample of Angus bulls (n=276). Four SNPs located into these regions were genotyped using SEQUENOM technology and the obtained genotypes were associated with age at puberty. The results showed that SNPs rs135953349 and rs110604205 on BTA1 were still significantly associated with age of puberty estimated at progressive sperm motility of 10% (p<0.05). The association found previously on chromosome X could not be confirmed. The analysis of the bovine genome revealed that the associated region (99.17 ? 99.99 Mb) contained four predicted loci: MECOM (MDS1 and EVI1 complex locus), LOC100337483 (eGF-like and EMI domain containing 1 pseudogene-like), MIR551B (microRNA mir-551b) and LOC100139843 (mCG140927-like). The results obtained could contribute to the understanding of puberty regulation and could be useful for further identification and annotation of gene function in the context of reproduction.