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.
YANG Zhu-Jing, LIN Jun, ZHANG Zhi-Yan, CHEN Cong-Yang
. Genetic variation and association of prostaglandin F2α receptor (PTGFR) gene with sow maternal behaviors in a White Duroc × Erhualian resource population[J]. Hereditas(Beijing), 2010
, 32(11)
: 1147
-1152
.
DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1005.2010.01147
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