A single nucleotide polymorphism possibly associated with fat deposition is methylated in the bovine TFAM promoter

Tanja KUNEJ; Zeping WANG; Jennifer J. MICHAL; Peter DOVČ; Nancy S. MAGNUSON; Zhihua JIANG

doi:10.14720/aas.2016.108.2.1

Authors

Tanja KUNEJ University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Animal Science, Slovenia
Zeping WANG Washington State University, School of Molecular Biosciences, USA
Jennifer J. MICHAL Washington State University, Department of Animal Sciences, USA
Peter DOVČ University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Animal Science, Slovenia
Nancy S. MAGNUSON Washington State University, School of Molecular Biosciences, USA
Zhihua JIANG Washington State University, Department of Animal Sciences, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14720/aas.2016.108.2.1

Keywords:

cattle, genetics, genetic polymorphism, candidate genes, gene promoters, TFAM, DNA methylation, CpG island, fat deposition

Abstract

Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein that plays an important role in energy metabolism and is a candidate gene for fat deposition in cattle and human. In the present study, we characterized the methylation status of bovine TFAM promoter flanking the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs42159487C>T, previously reported to affect fat deposition. Our results showed that the cytosine at this SNP position is methylated and therefore results in gain/loss of the functional CpG locus (5^mC>T). Promoter constructs developed based on three TFAM SNPs showed that the C/C/C haplotype associated with fat deposition in beef cattle had lower promoter function/activity than A/T/T haplotype. Our results imply that genetic variability underlying gain/loss of the CpG sites in the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins might be good candidate loci for fat deposition phenotypes.

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