CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

ASIP: TRANSCRIPTS AND EXPRESSION IN LLAMAS WITH DIFFERENT COAT COLOR Anello Melina1, Daverio, M.S.1,2 Vidal Rioja L.B.1, Di Rocco F.1 1Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular (IMBICE), CONICET-UNLP-CIC, La Plata, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaThe Agoutí gene (ASIP) is one of the most important genes for coat color determination in mammals. It has a complex structure with different promoters and alternative non-coding first exons that are transcribed into mRNAs with different 5´UTR. Studies in domestic animals indicate these transcripts can control pigment distribution. Otherwise, white coat is usually produced by mutations in KIT, MITF and TYR genes. However, this phenotype has also been associated with overexpression of ASIP in some species. In llamas (Lama glama), the molecular mechanism responsible for white is still unknown. We have recently studied the coding regions of KIT, MITF, TYR and ASIP, but no mutations were found to be associated with white coat in this species. Here, we characterized ASIP transcripts and studied their expression levels in the skin of llamas to further understand the role of ASIP in coat color determination. Skin biopsies were taken from white, pheomelanic (reddish brown) and eumelanic (black) llamas and total RNA was extracted. Then PCR-RACE was used to amplify the 5'UTRs of ASIP and these products were cloned and sequenced. Seven ASIP transcripts that differed in the 5?UTR were found. Most of them exhibited a structure similar to some ASIP transcripts already described in other mammalian species and we identified the homologous exons 1A, 1A?, 2A, 3A, and 1C. Additionally, one transcript (T6) presented a 5?UTR of 120 bp that showed similarity with NCOA6 gene. Then, we studied the global expression of ASIP by qPCR in the three phenotypic groups. White and brown groups showed an overexpression of ASIP in comparison to black (p