Animal Genomics
Editor: Bhanu Chowdhary, College Station, Tex.

Paper

Genomic organization of the DGAT2/MOGAT gene family in cattle (Bos taurus) and other mammals
A. Winter, M. van Eckeveld, O.R.P. Bininda-Emonds, F.A. Habermann, R. Fries

Lehrstuhl für Tierzucht der Technischen Universität München, München (Germany)

Address of Corresponding Author

Cytogenet Genome Res 2003;102:42-47 (DOI: 10.1159/000075723)

  Abstract.

We report the cloning and initial characterization of the genes encoding DGAT2 (diacylglycerol transferase 2), MOGAT1 and MOGAT2 (monoacylglycerol transferases 1 and 2) in domestic cattle (Bos taurus). The three closely related genes belong to a gene family with at least eight members in mammals and are candidate genes for quantitative traits related to dietary fat uptake, lipid synthesis and storage. MOGAT2 and DGAT2 form a tandem and were mapped to bovine chromosome (BTA) 15q25q26 by fluorescence in situ hybridization. MOGAT1 was localized to BTA 2q43q44. The three genes were investigated for polymorphisms that might be associated with breeding values for milk fat percentage in the dairy breeds German Holstein, German Simmental and German Brown. All the detected polymorphisms were located outside exons or, with one exception, were silent. In MOGAT1, a missense mutation in exon 4 was found that causes a non-conservative substitution of cysteine¹⁷⁰ (uncharged, hydrophobic) by lysine (positively charged, hydrophilic). However, allele frequency estimates from pooled DNA samples revealed no significant association of the observed polymorphisms with breeding values for milk fat percentage. A comparative analysis of chromosomal locations and exon-intron structure of the known members of the DGAT2/MOGAT gene family in humans, rodents and cattle indicates an ancient tandem duplication of the ancestor gene combined with an intron gain (or loss) in one copy. Further members of the family may have arisen by duplications of this gene tandem via two rounds of interchromosomal or genome duplications as well as further local (single) gene duplication and loss events.   

Copyright © 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Request reprints from Ruedi Fries
Lehrstuhl für Tierzucht der Technischen Universität München
85350 Freising-Weihenstephan, München (Germany)
telephone: +49-08161-713228; fax: +49-08161-713107
e-mail: Ruedi.Fries@tierzucht.tum.de

  Article Information

Supported by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Rinderzüchter (German cattle breeders federation, ADR) and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF, project 0311020A). O.B.E. was also supported by the German research program B.M.B.F. as part of the Bioinformatics for the Functional Analysis of Mammalian Genomes'' (BFAM) project.

Received 28 May 2003;
manuscript accepted 1 August 2003.
Number of Print Pages : 6
Number of Figures : 2, Number of Tables : 2, Number of References : 26