Identification Of Genes Related To Fur Color And Cloning And Diversity Analysis Of Creb1Gene In Rex Rabbit

Rabbit furs, especially Rex rabbit furs, are favored by consumers for their inherent beauty, lightness, softness, and good warmth retention properties. They are of great economic value. The color formation process in mammals is mainly regulated and controlled by diverse relatived genes. Our study achieved differentially expressed genes(DEGs) between dark chinchilla Rex rabbits and white Rex rabbits via gene chip technology. Some genes were selected from the DEGs for validation by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. And then, Candidate genes were found that were related to fur color formation by both national and foreign scholars’ research reports and bioinformatics analysis. Key genes achieved and provide theoretical basis for the molecular genetics associated with fur color determination in Rex rabbits. The main results are as follows:1. Our study obtained DEGs between three groups of full-sibs dark chinchilla Rex rabbits and white Rex rabbits through gene chip technology. There were89common genes were consistent expressed among the three groups. The four selected genes, Crebl, Wnt2, Gnaq and Gna14, for validation by quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the result of gene chip was reliable. Some genes were related to fur color formation, such as Crebl, TH, Wnt2, Gnaq, Dvll, Mapk12and so on were found. CREB phosphorylation can activate downstream of the Mitf gene, and then, the TYR gene will be activated. The output of melanin will increase. So, Crebl gene was chose to have a father study.2. Our study cloned rabbit Crebl coding sequence and had a homology comparison of amino acid sequence and other ten species, such as human, cow and so on. The homology of the amino acid sequence with other mammalian was above92%and with poultry, amphibians was above80%. Our study predicted the Crebl protein and found it was soluble protein in the nuclear. The Crebl protein containing327amino acids, its secondary structure included alpha helix (h)33.33%, random coil (c)44.95%, extension chain (e)21.71%. In order to understand the function of Crebl gene in the process of pigment cell proliferation, we successfully constructed a eukaryon expression vector of Crebl gene.3. There were total228rabbits were used in this study. Specific primers to detect the polymorphism of six exons of Crebl gene were designed in chinchilla Rex rabbit and white Rex rabbit used PCR-SSCP, respectively. The result showed that there were no SNPs in the six exons.