Genet. Sel. Evol. 39 (2007) 599-607
DOI: 10.1051/gse:2007024

NNAT and DIRAS3 genes are paternally expressed in pigs

Huan-Chen Cheng^a, Feng-Wei Zhang^a, Chang-Yan Deng^a, Cao-De Jiang^b, Yuan-Zhu Xiong^a, Feng-E Li^a and Ming-Gang Lei<sup>a

a</sup>  Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education and Key Laboratory of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agriculture University, Wuhan, P. R. China
^b  Department of Bio-engineering, College of Animal Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, P. R. China

(Received 24 December 2006; accepted 25 April 2007; published online 27 September 2007)

Abstract - Although expression and epigenetic differences of imprinted genes have been extensively characterised in man and the mouse, little is known on livestock species. In this study, the polymorphism-based approach was used to detect the imprinting status of NNAT and DIRAS3 genes in five heterozygous pigs (based on SNP) of Large White and Meishan F₁ hybrids. The results show that both genes were paternally expressed in all the tested tissues (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, stomach, small intestine, skeletal muscle, fat, uterus, ovary and pituitary). In addition, the NNAT gene had two transcripts in all tested tissues, which is consistent with its counterpart in man and cattle.

Key words: pig / NNAT / DIRAS3 / imprinting / paternally expressed

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