INTRODUCTION
The
MITF gene encodes a protein known as the microphthalmia-associated transcription factor. The basic structure of
MITF, which is located at the
mi locus, consists of nine exons and a basic helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper (bHLH-LZ) protein structure [
1]. The protein is involved in the development and function of melanocytes and is responsible for skin, hair, and eye color. This transcription factor facilitates the development of retinal pigment epithelial cells that contribute to retina color. Additionally, it also plays a role in the development of osteoclasts and mast cells in the bone marrow and regulates bone resorption and allergic reactions [
1].
MITF consists of multiple isoforms with different amino termini derived from unique exon 1 sequences produced by alternative splicing [
2]. In ducks, two types of
MITF isoform (
MITF-B and
MITF-M), which are expressed in feather bulbs, have been reported [
3].
MITF acts as a key regulator of melanogenesis enzyme genes of the
Tyr family and melanocyte differentiation. Hyperpigmentation, as a natural mutant, was characterized in a Chinese native duck breed, Silky fowl [
4]. In contrast,
MITF may regulate hypopigmentation as well as patterning (white spotting) in both cattle and dog breeds [
5,
6]. In Japanese quail, the silver plumage color has been shown to be associated with the causal
B mutation of
MITF [
7]. This mutation, resulting from a 2-bp deletion, produces a premature stop codon in exon 11 of
MITF and is also associated with growth.
Among the genes of the tyrosinase-related protein (
TYRP) family, dopachrome tautomerase (
DCT) plays important roles in the melanin pigmentation of vertebrates [
8]. The
TYRP2 protein was identified as the enzyme
DCT at the
slaty locus on chromosome 14 in mouse [
9] and is known as either
DCT or
TYRP2 [
10]. Expression of the
DCT gene has been detected in the retina of ducks, whereas no expression was observed in black and white feather bulbs [
3]. Hair melanin content was detected at a higher level in
DCT knockout mice than in
slaty mutant mice [
11].
The National Institute of Animal Science in Korea has been conducting a conservation program to examine the genetic differences among indigenous duck breeds and has expanded selective breeding programs to improve performances with a view toward commercial production [
12]. Likewise, a conservation scheme for the Bangladeshi indigenous duck breeds has also conducted for breed characterization and genetic improvement. In terms of industrial meat processing, white feather color has advantage over black feather color, in that the processed meat pigmentation and pin feathers are tend to be less preferred by consumers. Therefore, it is worthwhile to develop ducks with white feather color for economic advantage at the industrial level. In our previous study, we identified polymorphisms in different plumage color genes within Korean native black ducks and commercial meat-type Peking ducks [
13].
Although the effects of MITF and DCT genes and their variations have previously been explored in humans, mice, and various other vertebrates, there have been few studies on these genes in livestock and poultry species, including ducks. Therefore, as a continuation of our research on the MITF and DCT genes, the present study was conducted to investigate polymorphisms in these two genes to assess their associations with different black and white plumage color in Asian duck breeds.
DISCUSSION
Although several previous studies have reported specific association of SNPs of
MITF in cattle [
18], buffalo [
19], and dog [
20], there is virtually no information on the SNPs of
MITF in poultry, including duck. The present study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to report an SNP-specific association analysis to discriminate between Asian ducks with black and white plumage color. Previously, a 2-bp deletion in exon 11 of the quail
MITF gene was shown to generate a premature stop codon and resulted in a
B mutation for silver plumage color [
7]. In the current study, two synonymous SNPs in exon 1 and a 14-bp indel in intron 7 were found to have a highly significant association (p<0.001) with the plumage color of ducks. The intronic indel and SNPs located in exon 1 might be associated with plumage color variants or be closely related to other SNPs in the regulatory region of this gene and/or other adjacent SNPs in pigment cell-specific genes. Our results are supported by the findings of previous studies by Kimchi-Sarfaty et al [
21], Komar [
22], and Fernandez-Calero et al [
23]. These authors reported that silent polymorphisms that did not alter amino acid sequences in the human multidrug resistance 1 and estrogen receptor alpha genes could change the substrate specificity of a protein because of different structural and functional properties of a substrate, which might have an impact on a particular phenotype.
In the present study, the average genotype frequency of the 14-bp insertion was greater (0.85) in the black-colored duck population than that observed in the white-colored duck population. An 18-bp insertion located between exon 5 and 6 was identified in the dog
MITF-M+ isoform, which was associated with the addition of six amino acids in the polypeptide chain [
20]. The
MITF-M isoform activated melanocytes in the skin of the white Samoyed breed of dog. In many dog breeds, random white spotting has been attributed to an insertion of a short interspersed nucleotide at the 5′ end of the
MITF-M gene [
6,
24]. Li et al [
3], however, reported contrasting results in ducks. They reported that expression of both
MITF-M and
MITF-B isoforms was observed in the black feather bulbs and retinas of ducks, whereas the expression of
MITF-M was not detected in white feather bulbs. In addition, their results showed that
cis- or
trans-acting regulatory elements affected the
MITF-M isoform to determine the plumage pigmentation in ducks, which is in contrast to observations for the non-synonymous polymorphisms in Japanese quail. This conformational change in protein substrates might be associated with similar gene expression pattern in our studied duck population.
Although several studies have examined the gene expression and molecular character of
MITF, there have been very few studies on SNP polymorphisms and their associations with pigmentation in livestock animals. A missense mutation (p. Arg210Ile) in the bovine
MITF gene traced to chromosome 22 was shown to be the cause of German White Fleckvieh syndrome, which is dominantly inherited in Fleckvieh cattle and associated with hypopigmentation [
18]. In a recent study on swamp buffalo, a nonsense mutation (p. Arg110*) in exon 3 and a donor splice-site mutation (p. Glu281_Leu282Ins8) in intron 7 of
MITF were mapped to chromosome 22, both of which are associated with white-spotted coat color [
19]. Similarly, in six Ethiopian cattle populations with different environmental adaptation, it was shown that coat color variation was associated with
MITF, and a high genetic distance was observed between spotted and unspotted populations [
24]. The A allele frequency for the rs137845005 SNP of
MITF was observed at a higher percentage in spotted coat color populations, whereas the G allele frequency was greater in cattle populations with uniform coat color. These results are partially consistent with our findings regarding two SNPs (c.114T>G and c.147C>T) in exon 1, which were significantly associated with plumage color in white and black feather color duck populations.
In the
MITF gene, the average homozygous genotypes (TT) for these two SNPs were higher in the mixed- or black-colored duck population. Moreover, the average heterozygous genotype frequency for the c.147C>T SNP was higher (0.63) in the black-colored duck population and lower (0.36) in the white-colored duck population. The constructed haplotype results of this study showed that the GCGD haplotype had the highest frequency in the white-colored duck population. The GCGI and TCGI haplotypes showed the second and third highest haplotype frequencies, respectively, which are associated with the black plumage color phenotype in Nageswari and black Korean native ducks, respectively. Notably, three haplotypes, TCGI, TCGD, and TCAI, were only observed in the Korean native black and white color duck breeds. Generally, reconstructed haplotypes provide more explicit results compared to a particular SNP found in a specific region of the gene or genome. For example, haplotypes accounted for 80% more phenotypic variance in adiponectin, C1Q and collagen domain containing (
ADIPOQ), calpain 1 (
CAPN1), C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (
CXCR4), CCAAT/enhenhancer- binding protein alpha (
CEBPA), and fatty acid synthase (
FASN) genes and showed a robust association with intramuscular fat content in
Bos taurus cattle compared to single SNP analyses [
25], which is consistent with the findings of the present study. Such assembled haplotypes could be utilized for the selection and development of specific varieties with distinctive phenotypes.
Numerous studies have been conducted on the molecular characterization and gene expression of
DCT associated with pigmentation in mice [
8,
26], chicken [
27], quail [
28], cattle [
29], and duck [
3]. We identified polymorphisms of this gene and their association with plumage color in different Asian duck breeds for the first time. Li et al [
3] reported that
DCT was expressed only in the retina, whereas all ducks used in the experiment had normal dark retinas. However, no expression of this gene was identified in the white and black feather bulbs of ducks with white, black, and white-black dorsal plumage.
DCT consists of 8 exons and spans 17.3 kb of the duck genome; whereas its chromosomal location in duck has yet to be determined [
30]. In the present study, one SNP, c.938A>G, in exon 5 was significantly associated (p>0.001) with black and white plumage color in ducks. The frequency of the G allele of this c.938A>G polymorphism was higher in ducks with black-colored plumage than in those with white-colored plumage, whereas the A allele frequency was higher in white ducks. These results indicate that the amino acid substitution p.His313Arg might be associated with plumage pigmentation. Similar results have been reported in previous studies of mice coat color. A single amino acid substitution (p. Arg194Gln) was identified in the first copper binding site of the
TYRP2 protein of
slaty mice [
8]. This non-synonymous mutation was associated with a reduction in the relative activity of
DCT by more than 3 = fold at the
slaty locus compared with that in wild type mice due to the conversion of DOPAchrome to 5,6-dihydroxyindole carboxylic acid in melanin synthesis. One deletion and three polymorphisms in
DCT of mice are responsible for the dark gray coat color [
11]. Three mutations identified at the
DCT locus in mice were shown to cause different pigmentation phenotypes [
26]. The
slaty-2J mutation, a point mutation in exon 7, was characterized as recessive to the wild type and results in the substitution of proline by leucine, whereas the
slaty-light mutation results in the change of arginine to glycine at base 486 [
26]. Guyonneau et al [
11] reported restricted coat color effects due to deficient production of the
DCT protein in knockout mice for this gene. However, in French cattle breeds, the expression patterns of
TYR,
TYRP1, and
DCT genes showed no correlation with coat color dilution [
29].
In conclusion, we identified SNPs in MITF and examined their association with black and white plumage color in duck varieties. Among these, the two alleles c.114G and c.147C in exon 1 and an indel, g.42318-42331> GCTGCAAACAGATG, may have the effect of enhancing MITF activity and, consequently, eumelanin deposition in duck plumage. Two significant novel mutations that we identified in the duck DCT gene, a c.752A>G synonymous mutation in exon 4 and the ce.938A>G SNP in exon 5, might have effects on plumage coloration as a consequence of the replacement of histidine with arginine, although further investigations using large populations are required to verify this. However, absence of plumage color specific alleles or haplotypes limit the scope for complete separation of black from white colored duck. Overall, these mutations could, therefore, be considered as potential markers for selection of desired colors in duck populations.