Expression Analysis of the PITX2 Gene and Associations between Its Polymorphisms and Body Size and Carcass Traits in Chickens

摘要

The Wuliang Mountain Black-bone chicken is a Chinese indigenous breed with good meat quality and strong resistance to disease. Like most of the other Chinese domestic breeds, it has a much slower early growth rate compared with foreign chicken breeds. Therefore, the genetic selection of body size and carcass traits is still the focus of Chinese indigenous chicken breeding. The paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 2 ( ) gene, an important transcription factor, plays an important role during the development of the eye, heart, skeletal muscle and other tissues in mammals. In chicken, the gene affects the late myogenic differentiation of the limb. The objectives of this study were to detect the expression of the gene and analyze the associations between the polymorphisms in the exons of the gene and body size as well as carcass traits in chickens. The results could contribute to Chinese chicken breeding based on marker assisted-selection.