Investigation of Lpin1 as a candidate gene for fat deposition in pigs

Lpin1 deficiency prevents normal adipose tissue development and remarkably reduces adipose tissue mass, while overexpression of the Lpin1 gene in either skeletal muscle or adipose tissue promotes adiposity in mice. However, little is known about the porcine Lpin1 gene. In the present study, a 5,559-bp cDNA sequence of the porcine Lpin1 gene was obtained by RT-PCR and 3'RACE. The sequence consisted of a 111-bp 5'UTR, a 2,685-bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 894 amino acids and a 2,763-bp 3'UTR. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that Lpin1 had a high level of expression in the liver, spleen, skeletal muscle and fat, a low level of expression in the heart, lung and kidney. The porcine Lpin1 gene was assigned to 3q21-27 by using the somatic cell hybrid panel (SCHP) and the radiation hybrid (IMpRH) panel. One C93T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was identified and genotyped using the TaqI PCR-RFLP method. Association analysis between the genotypes and fat deposition traits suggested that different genotypes of the Lpin1 gene were associated with percentage of leaf fat and intramuscular fat.