Identification of a novel candidate gene for female puberty in birds
- Q. L. Wang (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- X. Q. Wang (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- Y. C. Dai (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- Y. C. Yang (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- S. B. Zhang (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- Q. P. Wang (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- C. L. Wen (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- C. J. Sun (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- Z. T. Yin (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
- N. Yang (State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding and Frontier Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, Beijing, China; National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding and Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Beijing, China)
Abstract
This study aimed to characterize the avian Makorin ring finger protein 4 (MKRN4) gene and investigate its evolutionary origin and potential role in female puberty, based on the established function of mammalian MKRN3 in pubertal regulation. In birds, puberty onset directly affects age at first egg, an economically important trait in poultry. However, MKRN3 is absent or annotated as a pseudogene in avian genomes. To address this, we performed a large-scale evolutionary analysis of the MKRN gene family across 163 metazoan species using genomic data from Ensembl and NCBI, and identified MKRN4 as a gene in non-mammals vertebrates. Molecular dating analyses indicated that bird MKRN4 originated approximately 300 million years ago, emerging after fish MKRN4 but before MKRN3. To validate this finding in birds, we performed PCR, RACE, and qPCR experiments in Rhode Island White chickens. MKRN4 is located on chromosome 26 and spans 2,961 bp, containing eight exons and an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 376 amino acids. Its spatiotemporal expression pattern was examined across 16 tissues from multiple organ systems, including the reproductive, nervous, digestive, and muscular systems, as well as across 10 developmental time points from day of hatch to post-laying. MKRN4 exhibited significantly higher expression in the ovary than in other tissues (P < 0.05). Although expression in both the ovary and hypothalamus peaked at 12 weeks and then declined, only ovarian MKRN4 transcript abundance was significantly negatively correlated with ovary weight (r = -0.548, P < 0.001), whereas no significant correlation was detected in the hypothalamus (r = -0.065, P = 0.665). In addition, we performed comparative population genomic analysis of MKRN4 using 10× whole-genome resequencing data from 50 broilers (White Plymouth Rock) and 50 layers (Rhode Island Red). Sliding-window FST analysis (window = 2 kb, step = 2 kb) identified a divergence signal within the MKRN4 locus (FST = 0.17). XP-EHH analysis further revealed elevated positive scores within the MKRN4 interval and higher integrated haplotype homozygosity in egg-type chickens than in meat-type chickens, indicating stronger positive selection on MKRN4 in egg-type chickens. In summary, we identified MKRN4 as a novel candidate gene associated with female puberty in birds, providing new insight into the genetic regulation of pubertal timing and a potential target for poultry breeding.
Keywords: 2026
How to Cite:
Wang, Q. L., Wang, X. Q., Dai, Y. C., Yang, Y. C., Zhang, S. B., Wang, Q. P., Wen, C. L., Sun, C. J., Yin, Z. T. & Yang, N., (2026) “Identification of a novel candidate gene for female puberty in birds”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2389616. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.25949
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