Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Growth Hormone Gene and Their Association with Growth Traits in Siniperca chuatsi (Basilewsky)

Abstract

Growth hormone (GH) has been considered as a candidate gene for growth traits in fish. In this study, polymorphisms of the GH gene were evaluated for associations with growth traits in 282 Siniperca chuatsi individuals. Using directly sequencing, four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in GH gene, with two mutations in intron 4 (g.4940A>C, g.4948A>T), one mutation in exon 5 (g.5045T>C) and one in intron 5 (g.5234T>G). Notably, three of them were significantly associated with growth performance, particularly for g.4940A>C which was highly correlated with all the four growth traits. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that these SNPs in GH gene could influence growth performance of S.chuatsi and could be used for marker-assisted selection (MAS) in this species.