母猪分娩期间的母性行为对新生仔猪的成活致关重要, 失败的母性行为如杀婴行为和压仔行为等经常在一些母猪中发生, 给养猪业造成巨大的经济损失, 给仔猪福利带来严重影响。前列腺素F2α不但可促发母猪产前的做窝行为, 而且通过其受体基因(PTGFR)编码的蛋白FP在母猪繁殖过程和母性行为中发挥重要作用。文章以白色杜洛克×二花脸资源群体为材料, 对PTGFR基因进行了SNP搜寻并分析其与母猪产前做窝行为、产后杀婴行为和压仔行为的关联性。结果: 在PTGFR基因的两个外显子中共搜寻到5个同义突变SNP。选择Exon 1 g.250 A>G、Exon 1 g.619 G>A 和 Exon 2 g.483 T>C 3个SNP在F0、F1个体和289头F2母猪中进行了基因型判定。基于家系基础上的传递不平衡(TDT)分析结果显示, PTGFR基因的3个SNP及单倍型与母猪做窝行为、杀婴行为和压仔行为均未达到显著相关(P > 0.05)。所以PTGFR基因可能并不是影响母猪母性行为的主效候选基因。
Maternal behaviors of sows around parturition are important for survival of newborn offspring. Failure to establish normal maternal bonds such as maternal infanticide and crushing often occurs in some individuals. It causes both significant economic losses to the pig industry and severe problems of piglet welfare. Prostaglandin F2-alpha not only can stimulate the nest-building behavior of sows before parturition but also plays an important role in reproductive process and maternal behavior through protein FP encoded by the prostaglandin F receptor gene (PTGFR) as its receptor. In this study, genetic variation and association study of PTGFR gene with nest-building behavior, maternal infanticide, and crushing behavior was carried out in a White Duroc × Erhualian resource population. As a result, five synonymous mutations were identified on exon 1 and exon 2. Exon 1 g.250 A>G, Exon 1 g.619 G>A and Exon 2 g.483 T>C were chosen for genotyping in indi-viduals of F0, F1 and 289 F2 sows. Family-based transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) demonstrated that there were no significant associations of 3 SNPs and haplotypes of PTGFR gene with sow nest-building, maternal infanticide and crushing behavior (P > 0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that PTGFR gene is not the causative candidate gene for sow maternal behaviors.
[1] van der Steen HAM, Schaeffer LR, de Jong H, de Groot PN. Aggressive behavior of sows at parturition. J Anim Sci, 1988, 66(2): 271–279.
[2] Chen CY, Gilbert CL, Yang GC, Guo YM, Segonds-Pichon A, Ma JW, Evens G, Brenig B, Sargent C, Affara N, Huang LS. Maternal infanticide in sows: Incidence and behavioral comparisons between savaging and non-savaging sows at parturition. Appl Anim Behav Sci, 2008, 109(2): 238–248.
[3] Harris MJ, Li YZ, Gonyou HW. Savaging behavior in gilts and sows. Can J Anim Sci, 2003, 83: 819–821.
[4] Marchant JN, Rudd AR, Mendl MT, Broom DM, Meredith MJ, Corning S, Simmins PH. Timing and causes of piglet mortality in alternative and conventional farrowing sys-tems. Vet Rec, 2000, 147(8): 209–214.
[5] Fraser D. Behavioural perspectives on piglet survival. J Reprod Fertil, 1990, 40(Suppl.): 355–370.
[6] Betz R, Lagercrantz J, Kedra D, Dumanski JP, Nor-denskjöld A. Genomic structure, 5′ flanking sequences, and precise localization in 1P31.1 of the human pros-taglandin F receptor gene. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 1999, 254(2): 413–416.
[7] Gilbert CL. Endocrine regulation of periparturient behav-iour in pigs. Reprod, 2001, 58(Suppl.): 263–266.
[8] Burne THJ, Murfitt PJE, Gilbert CL. Deprivation of straw bedding alters PGF2α-induced nesting behaviour in female pigs. Appl Anim Behav Sci, 2000, 69(3): 215–225.
[9] Appleyard SJ, Hall AD, Lawrence AB. Pre-farrowing be-havior distinguishes piglet-savaging gilts from non-sav-aging gilts. Proceedings of the 34th International Society of Animal Ethology, Florianopolis, Brazil, 2000, 62.
[10] Walton SL, Burne THJ, Gilbert CL. Prostaglandin F2α-induced nest-building behavior is associated with in-creased hypothalamic c-fos and c-jun mRNA expression. J Neuroendocrinol, 2002, 14(9): 711–723.
[11] Brown JR, Ye H, Bronson RT, Dikkes P, Greenberg ME. A defect in nurturing in mice lacking the immediate early gene FosB. Cell, 1996, 86(2): 297–309.
[12] Hiraiwa H, Sawazaki T, Suzuki K, Fujishima-Kanaya N, Toki D, Ito Y, Uenishi H, Hayashi T, Awata T, Yasue H. Elucidation of correspondence between swine chromo-some 4 and human chromosome 1 by assigning 27 genes to the ImpRH map, and development of microsatellites in the proximity of 14 genes. Cytogenet Genome Res, 2003, 101(1): 84–89.
[13] Anderson LE, Wu YL, Tsai SJ, Wiltbank MC. Pros-taglandin F(2α) receptor in the corpus luteum: recent in-formation on the gene, messenger ribonucleic acid, and protein. Biol Reprod, 2001, 64(4): 1041–1047.
[14] Zaragoza DB, Wilson R, Eyster K, Olson DM. Cloning and characterization of the promoter region of the human prostaglandin F2 receptor gene. Biochim Biophys Acta, 2004, 1676(2): 193–202.
[15] Dudbridge F. Pedigree disequilibrium tests for multilocus haplotypes. Genet Epidemiol, 2003, 25(2): 115–121.
[16] Gilbert CL, Murfitt PJE, Burne THJ. Effects of pros-taglandin F2 treatment of pseudopregnant pigs on nest building behavior and subsequent interactions with new-born piglets. Horm Behav, 2001, 39(3): 206–215.
[17] Boulton MI, Wickens A, Brown D, Goode JA, Gilbert CL. Prostaglandin F2α-induced nest-building in pseudopreg-nant pigs. II. Space restriction stress does not influence secretion of oxytocin, prolactin, oestradiol or progesterone. Physiol Behav, 1997, 62(5): 1079–1085.
[18] Sugimoto Y, Segi E, Tsuboi K, Ichikawa A, Narumiya S. Female reproduction in mice lacking the prostaglandin F receptor. Roles of prostaglandin and oxytocin receptors in parturition. Adv Exp Med Biol, 1998, 449: 317–321.
[19] Chen CY, Guo YM, Yang GC, Yang ZQ, Zhang ZY, Yang B, Yan XM, Perez-Enciso M, Ma JW, Duan YY, Brenig B, Huang LS. A genome wide detection of quantitative trait loci on pig mate