Association of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms of MDR1 and OPN Genes with Reproductive Traits in Different Breeds of Sows

The objective of this study was to investigate the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of the Multiple Drug Resistance Gene 1(MDR1) and the Porcine Osteopotin (OPN) gene and their association with reproductive traits in Landrace, Large Yorkshire and Jinhua sows. A total of 316 sows of three different breeds were used to examine the genotypes, and DNA sequencing method was employed to detect the potential SNPs in this study. There were two SNP loci found in these genes totally. One mutation (G -> A) was detected in exon 1 of MDR1 gene, which caused a synonymous mutation of amino acid (Leu -> Leu), the other one (T -> A) in exon 7 of OPN gene, resulting in a non-synonymous mutation (His -> Gln). The association analysis indicated that the GG genotype ofMDR1 gene and the TT genotype of OPN gene had the highest values for the total number of piglets born (TNB), the number of piglets born alive (NBA), piglet weight at birth (PWB) and litter weight at birth (LWB) in both primiparous and multiparous sows of the three breeds. These results suggested that the SNP locis of MDR1 and OPN genes can be used in Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) programs for rapid improvement of the reproductive traits in sows.