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Identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene in some goat breeds in tropical and temperate climates

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Abstract

The agouti-signaling protein (ASIP) plays a major role in mammalian pigmentation as an antagonist to melanocortin-1 receptor gene to stimulate pheomelanin synthesis, a major pigment conferring mammalian coat color. We sequenced a 352 bp fragment of ASIP gene spanning part of exon 2 and part of intron 2 in 215 animals representing six goat breeds from Nigeria and the United States: West African Dwarf, predominantly black; Red Sokoto, mostly red; and Sahel, mostly white from Nigeria; black and white Alpine, brown and white Spanish and white Saanen from the US. Twenty haplotypes from nine mutations representing three intronic, one silent and five missense (p.S19R, p.N35K, p.L36V, p.M42L and p.L45W) mutations were identified in Nigerian goats. Approximately 89 % of Nigerian goats carry haplotype 1 (TGCCATCCG) which seems to be the wild type configuration of mutations in this region of the gene. Although we found no association between these polymorphisms in the ASIP gene and coat color in Nigerian goats, in-silico functional analysis predicts putative deleterious functional impact of the p.L45W mutation on the basic amino-terminal domain of ASIP. In the American goats, two intronic mutations, g.293G>A and g.327C>A, were identified in the Alpine breed, although the g.293G>A mutation is common to American and Nigerian goat populations. All Sannen and Sahel goats in this study belong to haplotypes 1 of both populations which seem to be the wild-type composite ASIP haplotype. Overall, there was no clear association of this portion of the ASIP gene interrogated in this study with coat color variation. Therefore, additional genomic analyses of promoter sequence, the entire coding and non-coding regions of the ASIP gene will be required to obtain a definite conclusion.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks to Dr. W. Ron Butler, the Department of Animal Science and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University for the opportunity given to M.A.A. and B.O.A. as visiting research students at Cornell University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

    Mufliat A. Adefenwa, Khalid O. Adekoya, Bola Oboh & Gabriel O. Williams

  2. Department of Animal Sciences, Berry College, Mount Berry, GA, 30149, USA

    Sunday O. Peters

  3. Department of Animal Science and Fisheries, University of Port-Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

    Brilliant O. Agaviezor

  4. Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria

    Matthew Wheto & Olufunmilayo A. Adebambo

  5. Department of Livestock Production, Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Nigeria

    Moses Okpeku

  6. Department of Animal Science, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, 31030, USA

    Mahipal Singh

  7. Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Mufliat A. Adefenwa, Sunday O. Peters, Brilliant O. Agaviezor, Marcos De Donato & Ikhide G. Imumorin

  8. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, 14623, USA

    Bolaji Thomas

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  1. Mufliat A. Adefenwa
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Correspondence to Ikhide G. Imumorin.

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Adefenwa, M.A., Peters, S.O., Agaviezor, B.O. et al. Identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene in some goat breeds in tropical and temperate climates. Mol Biol Rep 40, 4447–4457 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-013-2535-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-013-2535-1

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