Association of pig UCP3 gene mutations and back fat thickness in the sixth and seventh rib

Accumulated studies have documented extensive links between UCP3 polymorphisms and pig productive traits, and quantitative trait loci linkage results, on the other hand, provided extensive evidences showing that UCP3 was in the core of several QTLs for carcass and meat quality traits. In this research, we screened two substitutions in coding sequence and one 9-base continuous mutated site in 3′UTR of pig UCP3 gene using the reference population of 293 pigs which were F 2 generation of hybrids between Chinese native Jinhua pigs and European Pietrain. The two missense mutations of G1406A in Exon 3 and T3602C in Exon 5 which led to changes in the G150R and M259T, respectively, were digested by Sma I and introduced Tth 111I separately for genotype analysis, and the 9-base continuous mutated site in the 3′UTR was analyzed by an Ava I cleavage. As a result, the 9-base continuous mutated site of 3′UTR manifested significantly close association with the backfat thickness at the sixth and seventh rib, but the polymorphisms of G1406A and T3602C were not associated significantly with any of the seven carcass traits. The same results were shown by RT-qPCR and western blotting. These findings inferred that UCP3 probably has tissue-specific effects on pig carcass traits.