Abstract:

【Objective】 The chicken PPARγ gene 5' flanking region was used to detect the polymorphisms, and the correlation between the polymorphism and growth and body composition traits were analyzed in order to find the quantitative trait locus which providing a basis for molecular marker-assisted selection. 【Method】The 8th to 10th generation populations of the Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content were used. Growth and body composition traits were measured in the above populations. Polymorphisms among individuals were detected by DNA sequencing, PCR-RFLP and some other methods. The correlation analysis between the haplotypes constructed with the three polymorphisms detected and the growth and body composition traits was performed. 【Result】 The correlation analysis showed that haplotypes, based on three polymorphisms in 5' flanking region of PPARγ gene (g.-1784_-1768del17, c.-1241G＞A and c.-75G＞A), were significantly correlated with abdominal fat weight (AFW), abdominal fat percentage (AFP), liver weight (LW), liver weight percentage (LW/BW), shank length (ShL), femur weight (FeW), feel length (KeL), metatarsus circle (MeC) (P＜0.05), and suggestively significantly correlated to some extents to pectoralis major weight (PMaW), pectoralis minor weight (PMiW), pectoralis minor weight percentage (PMiW/BW), metatarsus length (MeL) (P＜0.2). The least square analysis showed that the birds with BGA haplotype had significantly higher AFW and AFP than the birds with other haplotypes (P＜0.05). The birds with AAG haplotype had significant higher LW and LW/BW than the birds with other haplotypes (P＜0.05). The birds with AAG haplotype had significant higher PMiW and PMiW/BW than the birds with other haplotypes (P＜0.05). The birds with AAG haplotype had significant higher ShL, FeW, MeL, MeC and KeL than the birds with AGG haplotypes (P＜0.05). 【Conclusion】 The haplotype-based correlations reveal that there may exist QTL in 5' flanking region of PPARγ, affecting abdominal fat traits in chickens, and PPARγ gene might be one of the genes having an important influence on the growth and skeletogenesis traits in chickens.

Key words: chicken, PPARγ, haplotype, fat, skeleton, major gene