Plant & Animal Genomes XVII Conference

January 10-14, 2009
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Molecular Cloning, Expression And Methylation Analysis Of Bovine Rasgrf1 Gene

Breanna Tomlin¹ , Marcos De Donato² , Chris Bates¹ , Muhammad Farooqi¹ , Moses Okpeku⁴ , Gary Hansen³ , Ikhide Imumorin¹

¹  Department of Biology, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA 30314. USA

²  Laboratory Genetica Molecular, IIBCA, Universidad de Oriente, Cumana, Venezuela

³  Dept of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Plymouth, NC 27962 USA

⁴  Dept of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269

⁵  Dept of Livestock Production Technology, Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.

A subset of mammalian genes is expressed in a parent-of-origin dependent manner called genomic imprinting. These genes have been implicated in various biological processes and are highly expressed in mammalian placenta. Although over 100 genes are known to be imprinted mostly in humans and mouse; few genes are known to be imprinted in cattle. Rasgrf1 mutant mice had near normal body weight at birth, but their weight started to lag behind that of wild-type littermates during the first week, and they ended up about 15% lighter as adults. We have cloned the bovine Rasgrf1 and determined its expression in various tissues as well ascertained the methylation status of its CpG islands. Our results show that the bovine Rasgrf1 shares significant homology with its human and mouse counterparts and is expressed in muscle, liver, ovary, heart, and stomach tissues and the observed methylation of its CpG islands may be diagnostic of putative imprinting status.