The porcine ANG, RNASE1 and RNASE6 genes: molecular cloning, polymorphism detection and the association with haematological parameters.

Angiogenin (ANG) [also known as ribonuclease, RNase A family, 5 (RNASE5)], ribonuclease, RNase A family, 1 (pancreatic) (RNASE1) and ribonuclease, RNase A family, k6 (RNASE6) are three members of the RNase A superfamily. It has been suggested that these three genes play important roles in host defense. In this study, we obtained the whole open reading frame (ORF) of each gene and found the deduced proteins contain some similar structures harboring a catalytic triad and an invariant "CKXXNTF" signature motif. One single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was detected in each gene (g. 149G>T polymorphism in the porcine ANG gene, which resulted in an amino acid change from glycine to valine, g. 296A>G polymorphism in the porcine RNASE1 gene and g. 389C>T polymorphism in the porcine RNASE6 gene). Association analyses revealed the significant associations (P < 0.05) between the porcine ANG g. 149G>T polymorphism and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet-large cell ratio (P-LCR) measured on 0-day-old pigs and MCV measured at 32 days after birth. The porcine RNASE6 g. 389C>T polymorphism was significantly associated (P < 0.05) with MCV, MCH and neutrophil percentage (NEI %) measured on 0-day-old pigs, respectively. Our current findings, if confirmed by other studies, might shed some light on the roles of the investigated genes in host defense.