Sheep zinc finger proteins 395 (<i>ZNF395</i>): insertion/deletion variations, associations with growth traits, and mRNA expression

Abstract

Zinc finger protein 395 (ZNF395), belonging to the Krüppel C2H2-type zinc-finger protein family, is a common transcription factor, which is involved in several cellular responses such as cell proliferation, differentiation, metabolism, and immunity, especially in the process of adipogenesis. In order to explore the insertion/deletion (indel) genetic variations of <i>ZNF395</i> and evaluate their effects on sheep growth traits, a total of 1934 samples from five Chinese and two Mongolian sheep breeds were investigated. Genetic variation analysis of <i>ZNF395</i> revealed a novel 23 bp indel at the intron 3 with three genotypes. Association analysis results showed that this locus was significantly associated with 10 different growth traits, especially chest width (<i>p</i> = 0.003) and chest circumference (<i>p</i> = 0.003) of Small Tail Han sheep and cannon circumference (<i>p</i> = 0.007) of Hu sheep. In addition, the mRNA expression of <i>ZNF395</i> was investigated in two sheep breeds of different tail types. The result indicated that the expression was significantly different between the tail fat of Lanzhou Fat-Tail sheep and Small Tail Han sheep (<i>p</i> < 0.05). This study showed that the 23 bp indel locus in the <i>ZNF395</i> gene were associated with sheep growth traits, which could be beneficial for animal breeding.