Association between perilipin gene polymorphisms and body weight traits in Jinmao Hua chickens

Abstract. The perilipin gene (PLIN) plays a crucial role in lipid metabolism and fat deposition. In order to reveal the genetic effects of PLIN polymorphisms on body weight (BW) traits in chickens, PLIN gene polymorphisms in 322 Jinmao Hua chickens were detected by PCR-SSCP and DNA sequencing methods. For PLIN primer pair 1, five genotypes (AA, AB, BB, JJ and JL) were detected in the Jinmao Hua chicken population and three mutations (g.1889C > T, g.1904T > C and g.1922C > T) were revealed by gene sequencing. For PLIN primer pair 2, three genotypes (CC, CD and DD) were detected in the same population and two mutations (g.2014A > G and g.2020C > T) were revealed by gene sequencing. Least squares analysis showed that individuals with the JJ and CD genotypes performed better than the other Jinmao Hua chicken genotypes. Based on the five SNPs, the frequency distributions of the eight haplotypes were estimated with PHASE2.1 software. C-T-C-G-T was the major haplotype with a frequency of 58.6957 %, while the frequency of C-C-C-A-C was less than 1 %. Fourteen diplotypes were obtained from the eight haplotypes. H1H1 was the dominant diplotype with a frequency of 47.205 %. Least squares analysis indicated that BW with the H3H3 diplotype was the lowest, while the H2H2 diplotype was the highest, suggesting that selecting for the H3H3 diplotype improved the BW traits of Jinmao Hua chickens. The findings of this study should be useful to expand the theoretical basis of the role the PLIN in poultry molecular breeding of poultry.