Association analysis of aquaporin 7 (AQP7) gene variants with semen quality and fertility in bulls

Authors

TENGHE MA
JIFENG LIU
RUIFENG ZHAO
HAO JIANG
LISHENG DAI
YUMIN ZHAO
ZHIHUI ZHAO
JIABAO ZHANG

DOI

10.3906/vet-0908-33

Abstract

Aquaporin 7 (AQP7) gene as a candidate Antifreeze gene was investigated and associated with fresh and frozen semen quality traits in 45 Simmental and Charolais bulls. PCR-SSCP, PCR-RFLP, and sequencing method were employed to detect the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the AQP7 gene. Two mutations, A264G and G371C, were identified. The allele frequencies were A (0.97, 0.96) to B (0.03, 0.04) and C (0.97, 0.91) to D (0.03, 0.09) in Simmental and Charolais bulls, respectively. A264G substitution was significantly associated with acrosome integrity ratio (P < 0.01) and motility (P < 0.05) in frozen semen. Meanwhile, G371C substitution was significantly associated with acrosome integrity ratio (P < 0.05), percentages of viable sperm (P < 0.05), and motility (P < 0.01) in frozen semen. The results prove that AQP7 gene SNPs are useful for marker-assisted selection in early seed selection in the bull industry.

Keywords

AQP7 gene, single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs, association analysis, Simmental bulls, Charolais bulls

First Page

63

Last Page

66

Recommended Citation

MA, TENGHE; LIU, JIFENG; ZHAO, RUIFENG; JIANG, HAO; DAI, LISHENG; ZHAO, YUMIN; ZHAO, ZHIHUI; and ZHANG, JIABAO (2011) "Association analysis of aquaporin 7 (AQP7) gene variants with semen quality and fertility in bulls," Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences: Vol. 35: No. 1, Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3906/vet-0908-33
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/veterinary/vol35/iss1/9