Molecular Characterization of UQCC gene in Pakistani red Sindhi cattle: expression patterns, novel SNPs, and growth performance attributes

Abstract

Introduction/objective: Polymorphisms in genes that regulate meat and skeletal growth may be key factors in investigations of bovine morphogenesis. Numerous rare genetic polymorphisms are associated with human and bovine growth. The current study aimed to sequence the bovine ‘UQCC locus cDNA’ and compare it with the human sequence.

 Materials and Methods: the study was conducted to determine the effect of recognized mutations in the UQCC gene on specified traits. Biopsy samples were taken from various compartments of around 300 Red Sindhi cattle. mRNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA using RT-PCR. The Blast program was used to compare the mRNA sequences of UQCC. The phylogeny and homology of amino acid sequences were determined and SNPs and their association with meat quantity traits were evaluated. Statistical analyses were conducted using Statistics 1.1 software.

Results: A parallel trial performed via real-time PCR revealed that bovine UQCC is differentially expressed in various compartments, with high expression in the spleen and heart, and low expression in the trachea. The SNPs DraI A2691T in intron 1 and Polymorphism Bsh1236I, A3150G in intron 8 (PBW) were strongly associated with pin bone width and body length. The SNPs A2691T and A3150G had significant effects on the relative body length, rump length and body weight of all individuals. The SNP A3150G had a significant effect on chest depth, body length and body weight. Body length (p = 0.0215), chest depth (p = 0.0282) and pin bone width (p = 0.0329) were significantly affected by the combination of the two SNPs.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the UQCC gene could be used as a prognostic marker to investigate meat quantity features in bovines. Cattle could also be used as a model organism to investigate human bone structure. We suggest that animal breeders and geneticists could use our findings to enable the use of molecular-assisted selection (MAS) to facilitate mammal development.