Genetic Association of PLAG1 Gene Variant 14:25015640G>T with Wither-Height in Pakistani Cattle

Abstract

The cow is one of the most valuable domesticated animals, producing milk, meat, fiber, hide and manure for agricultural purposes to serve humanity. Particularly, first two production traits are significantly linked with the physical characteristics of the animal e.g., wither-height, large body-size and skeletal frame are positively correlated with these production traits. The PLAG1 is one of the many genes that has been associated with the aforementioned trait in many livestock and human species. So, the current study was conducted on a total of 50 cattles using ARMS-PCR genotyping technique followed by genetic association testing of the 14:25015640G>T variant using PLINK data analysis toolset. Our findings showed that 24% of the sampled Pakistani cow population are homozygous wild-type (GG), 12% homozygous mutant (TT), while 64% found heterozygous (GT). Sampled cows were obeying Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) with{chi} 2 (2, N = 50) = 10.39, p = 0.049. Similarly, Chi-square variant association was also observed significant with p-value of 1.267x10-3 having minor-allele frequency of 0.60 and 0.28 in heighted (cases) and control cohorts respectively. Additionally, a positive odds-ratio of 3.85 is also evident that the subject variant is under-selection and showing the tendency of the mutant allele almost 4-times higher in cases vs control groups. This pilot scale study would be helpful to gain insight of variability of the subject SNP in the sampled cow population but further functional studies on larger sample size may be conducted for validation and subsequent results can be disseminated to improve this valued trait of the indigenous cows for gaining maximum milk and meat production from this esteemed species.