Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in collagen genes and association with skin quality trait

Livestock skin is largely employed in the manufacturing of clothing and shoes, sector in which Italy is a world leader. To sustain Italian products against foreign competition in the globalization era particular attention is to be focus on product quality. Here we investigate the association of SNP mutations in genes coding for collagen proteins present in animal skin with a number of phisico-chemical parameters influencing skin quality for the tanning industry. Skin and blood were sampled from 73 Italian Friesian and Italian Brown bovines and from 43 Bergamasca and Sarda ovines, classified by sex and age. Skins were characterised for a set of chemico-physical parameters (thickness, density, humidity, protein content, ashes, lipid content, hydrossi-proline and DNA content). Regions of the collagen type I, III and IV were screened for SNP discovery in the two species by sequencing a set of reference animals. In bovine 15 polymorphisms were identified: (2 in collagen type I, 9 in collagen type III alpha 2; 4 in collagen type IV alpha 3). In ovine 21 SNPs were detected (7 for collagen type I, 7 in collagen type III alpha 2, 8 in collagen type IV alpha 3). Association analysis between SNP variants and traits was carried out by single marker ANCOVA within species, considering the breed as categorical predictor and the age in months as continuous predictor. One SNP in ovine and two in bovines resulted significantly associated (P <0,05) with one or more skin traits. © Copyright 2007 Taylor & Francis Group LLC.