QPCT is An Imprinted Gene with Maternal Allele Expression in Cattle (Bos taurus)
GU Shu-Kai1, LIU Xiao-Qian1, LI Jun-Liang1, CHEN Wei-Na2, ZHANG Cui1, LI Dong-Jie3, LI Shi-Jie1, *
1 College of Life Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China; 2 Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hebei University, Baoding 071001, China; 3 College of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050018, China
Abstract：Genomic imprinting is an epigenetics phenomenon in mammals that leads to genes expressed from only one of the two parental copies. Imprinted genes play important roles in mammalian growth and development and affect the occurrence of diseases. Glutaminyl-peptide cyclotransferase (QPCT) has been found to be involved in post-translational modification of proteins and implicated in various mental disorders in human (Homo sapiens). Qpct is a placental-specific paternally imprinted gene in mouse (Mus musculus), but its imprinting status in cattle (Bos taurus) is still unknown. The aim of this study was to identify the imprinting status of QPCT gene in cattle and to determine whether DNA methylation would play a role in QPCT imprinting. The allele expression status of QPCT gene in bovine placenta and 6 somatic tissues (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and brain) were analyzed by direct sequencing of reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) products based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Results indicated that QPCT showed monoallelic expression in all the 6 tissues and placentas. QPCT showed maternal allele expression in bovine placentas by analyzing the genotypes of parental genomic DNA. The methylation status of CpG-enriched region in QPCT promoter were analyzed in bovine placentas and somatic tissues using bisulfite sequencing method, and no differentially methylated regions were detected in 55 CpG sites. The above results indicated that the DNA methylation modification in the promoter region of QPCT gene might not be involved in regulating the expression of QPCT gene in cattle, which would provide valuable information for further study of the function of QPCT gene.
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