Dynamic changes of genomic methylation profiles at different growth stages in Chinese Tan sheep.

Background: Tan sheep, an important local sheep breed in China, is famous for their fur quality. One-month-old Tan sheep have white, curly hair with beautiful flower spikes, commonly known as "nine bends", which has high economic value. However, the "nine bends" characteristic gradually disappears with age; consequently, the economic value of the Tan sheep decreases.

Protein expression profiles in Meishan and Duroc sows during mid-gestation reveal differences affecting uterine capacity, endometrial receptivity, and the maternal-fetal Interface.

Background: Embryonic mortality is a major concern in the commercial swine industry and primarily occurs early in gestation, but also during mid-gestation (~ days 50-70). Previous reports demonstrated that the embryonic loss rate was significant lower in Meishan than in commercial breeds (including Duroc). Most studies have focused on embryonic mortality in early gestation, but little is known about embryonic loss during mid-gestation.

A post-GWAS confirming GPAT3 gene associated with pig growth and a significant SNP influencing its promoter activity.

Our previous genome-wide association study revealed that a SNP, ASGA0040372, located upstream of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 3 (GPAT3), is related to growth traits in Duroc pigs. In this study, we aimed to extensively investigate the genetic variation of GPAT3 and to further verify the contribution of ASGA0040372 to growth traits and its effect on promoter activity. Our data, obtained based on gene cloning and rapid amplification of cDNA ends experiments, showed that there are 14 exons and three alternative splicing variants.