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Genetic variability of the coding region for the prion protein gene (PRNP) in gayal (Bos frontalis)

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Abstract

The gayal (Bos frontalis) is a rare semi-wild bovid species in which bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has not been reported. Polymorphisms of the prion protein gene (PRNP) have been correlated significantly with resistance to BSE. In this study, the coding region of PRNP was cloned and characterized in samples from 125 gayal. A total of ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including six silent mutations (C60T, G75A, A108T, G126A, C357T and C678T) and four mis-sense mutations (C8A, G145A, G461A and C756G), corresponding to amino acids T3K, G49S9, N154S and I252M were identified, revealing high genetic diversity. Three novel SNPs including C60T, G145A and C756G, which have not been reported previously in bovid species, were retrieved. There also was one insertion–deletion (187Del24) at the N-terminal octapeptide repeat region. Alignment of nucleotide and amino acid sequences showed a high degree of similarity with other bovid species. Using phylogenetic analyses it was revealed that gayal has a close genetic relationship with Zebu cattle. In short, preliminary information is provided about genotypes of the PRNP in gayal. This could assist with the study of the pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and cross species transmission as well as a molecular breeding project for gayal in China.

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Acknowledgments

Major funding was provided from the State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SKLVEB2009KFKT010) and in part funding was also provided by the Open-funded Project (to DMX) of the Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Yunnan Agricultural University. We thank to our team members for sharing and using samples from gayal which were collected between 2005 and 2008 with financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (2005C0038M), the National “863” Program (2008AA101001) and the National Technology Support Project (2008BADB2B01-14). We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support provided. The authors thank Professor G. H. McDowell for invaluable comments on the manuscript. The authors also appreciated the help of staff from the Gongshan County Animal Science and Veterinary Bureau during samples collection.

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  1. Yiduo He

    Present address: Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China

    Dongmei Xi, Qing Liu, Yuai Yang, Yiduo He, Huaming Mao, Xiao Gou & Weidong Deng

  2. The State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, 730046, China

    Jianhong Guo

  3. Faculty of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China

    Hongman Yu

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  1. Dongmei Xi
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  2. Qing Liu
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Correspondence to Weidong Deng.

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D. Xi and Q. Liu contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

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Xi, D., Liu, Q., Guo, J. et al. Genetic variability of the coding region for the prion protein gene (PRNP) in gayal (Bos frontalis). Mol Biol Rep 39, 2011–2020 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-011-0948-2

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