Free Access
Issue
Genet. Sel. Evol.
Volume 40, Number 5, September-October 2008
Page(s) 563 - 579
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/gse:2008015
Published online 12 August 2008
Genet. Sel. Evol. 40 (2008) 563-579
DOI: 10.1051/gse:2008015

Characterization of porcine ENO3: genomic and cDNA structure, polymorphism and expression

Jian Wu1, Donghai Zhou2, Changyan Deng3, Xiaoxiong Wu1, Liangqi Long1 and Yuanzhu Xiong3

1  Department of Basic Veterinary Medicine, School of Animal Sciences and School of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China
2  College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China
3  Key Laboratory of Swine Genetics and Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China

Received 1st December 2007; accepted 4 March 2008; published online 12 August 2008

Abstract - In this study, a full-length cDNA of the porcine ENO3 gene encoding a 434 amino acid protein was isolated. It contains 12 exons over approximately 5.4 kb. Differential splicing in the 50-untranslated sequence generates two forms of mRNA that differ from each other in the presence or absence of a 142-nucleotide fragment. Expression analysis showed that transcript 1 of ENO3 is highly expressed in liver and lung, while transcript 2 is highly expressed in skeletal muscle and heart. We provide the first evidence that in skeletal muscle expression of ENO3 is different between Yorkshire and Meishan pig breeds. Furthermore, real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that, in Yorkshire pigs, skeletal muscle expression of transcript 1 is identical at postnatal day-1 and at other stages while that of transcript 2 is higher. Moreover, expression of transcript 1 is lower in skeletal muscle and all other tissue samples than that of transcript 2, with the exception of liver and kidney. Statistical analysis showed the existence of a polymorphism in the ENO3 gene between Chinese indigenous and introduced commercial western pig breeds and that it is associated with fat percentage, average backfat thickness, meat marbling and intramuscular fat in two different populations.


Key words: pig / ENO3 / polymorphism

Corresponding author: guanjian830@126.com

© INRA, EDP Sciences 2008