ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Reproduction - Theriogenology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1629162
Association analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the LIFR gene with lambing number in sheep
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
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Lambing number trait in sheep is a complex trait controlled by multiple genes, and low lambing number severely limit the economics of the sheep industry. Previous studies have found that SPOCK1, ADAMTS1, HBEGF and LIFR are involved in mammalian reproduction. However, the effects of these genes on lambing number in sheep are still unclear. In this study, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) loci at the above four genes were genotyped in five sheep breeds (two single-born sheep breeds and three multiple-born sheep breeds with a total of 768 sheep) using the Sequenom MassARRAY ® SNP assay, and their associations with the lambing number in Small-tiled Han sheep were analyzed. The results showed that a total of six SNPs loci were identified in four genes, SPOCK1, ADAMTS1, HBEGF and LIFR (c.*1633A>G, c.*1388T>C, c.*1095G>A, c.1847A>G, c.*2403A>G and c.*127T>C). All the above SNPs had three genotypes in five sheep breeds. The population genetic analysis of SNPs of the four genes and the association analysis with lambing number showed that the polymorphism information content of the five sheep breeds of Small-tailed Han sheep, Hu sheep, Cele black sheep, Sunite sheep, and Bamei mutton sheep was between 0 and 0.37, and some sheep breeds were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P>0.05). The c.*127 T>C locus of LIFR gene may be affected by natural or artificial selection in these sheep breeds, and the association analysis between the c.*127 T>C locus of LIFR gene and the lambing number of Small-tailed Han sheep showed that the c.*127 T>C locus of LIFR gene was significantly associated with the lambing number of the second, third and average parity of Small-tailed Han sheep (P<0.05). The lambing number of ewes with LIFR CC genotype was significantly lower than that with TT and CT genotype (P<0.05). The LIFR protein interaction network was also predicted and found to interact with the reported CNTF, CLCF1, IL6ST and CNTFR proteins. In conclusion, the c.*127 T>C locus of LIFR gene can be used as a candidate genetic molecular marker to increase lambing numbers in polytocous sheep.
Keywords: Lambing number, LIFR, molecular marker, MassARRAY, Sheep
Received: 15 May 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wen, Xiang, Zhang, Liu, Liu and Chu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yufang Liu, State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Mingxing Chu, State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
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