Haplotype C of growth hormone (GH) gene in JapaneseBlack cattle: Structure of GH protein and a novelmethod for detection of the gene

摘要

From a series of studies on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the bovine growth hormone (GH) gene of JapaneseBlack cattle, the type-C (127Val and 172Met) that is specific for this breed has been intensively focused upon because of theeconomic importance for carcass traits, such as intramuscular oleic acid contents. In the present study, we intended toanalyze the 3-D structure of GH of haplotype C, and developed a novel method to detect the type C gene. Three-D analysisof the type C protein showed that the amino acid residues (127Val and 172Met), which are present in the third and fourthhelixes, respectively, and are important for binding with GH receptors, are shifted to deeper positions in the moleculecompared with that for type A (127Leu and 172Thr), implying the alteration of binding interaction with receptors. A novel,efficient and cost-effective method (Dot-blot-SNP technique) for type C genotyping was successfully established, of whichthe basal method was a reported genotyping of SNPs for a large number of plants, reducing the cost to 10% or less ofdirect sequencing.