The KIT gene is associated with the english spotting coat color locus and congenital megacolon in Checkered Giant rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus).

Autor: Luca Fontanesi, Manuela Vargiolu, Emilio Scotti, Rocco Latorre, Maria Simonetta Faussone Pellegrini, Maurizio Mazzoni, Martina Asti, Roberto Chiocchetti, Giovanni Romeo, Paolo Clavenzani, Roberto De Giorgio
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 4, p e93750 (2014)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093750
Popis: The English spotting coat color locus in rabbits, also known as Dominant white spotting locus, is determined by an incompletely dominant allele (En). Rabbits homozygous for the recessive wild-type allele (en/en) are self-colored, heterozygous En/en rabbits are normally spotted, and homozygous En/En animals are almost completely white. Compared to vital en/en and En/en rabbits, En/En animals are subvital because of a dilated ("mega") cecum and ascending colon. In this study, we investigated the role of the KIT gene as a candidate for the English spotting locus in Checkered Giant rabbits and characterized the abnormalities affecting enteric neurons and c-kit positive interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in the megacolon of En/En rabbits. Twenty-one litters were obtained by crossing three Checkered Giant bucks (En/en) with nine Checkered Giant (En/en) and two en/en does, producing a total of 138 F1 and backcrossed rabbits. Resequencing all coding exons and portions of non-coding regions of the KIT gene in 28 rabbits of different breeds identified 98 polymorphisms. A single nucleotide polymorphism genotyped in all F1 families showed complete cosegregation with the English spotting coat color phenotype (θ=0.00 LOD =75.56). KIT gene expression in cecum and colon specimens of En/En (pathological) rabbits was 5-10% of that of en/en (control) rabbits. En/En rabbits showed reduced and altered c-kit immunolabelled ICC compared to en/en controls. Morphometric data on whole mounts of the ascending colon showed a significant decrease of HuC/D (P
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