Isolation, expression patterns and SNP frequencies of the porcine PHKG2 gene

Phosphorylase kinase, gamma 2 gene (PHKG2) encodes the catalytic subunit of phosphorylase kinase which is a regulatory enzyme in the cascade activation of glycogenolysis. In order to further understand the functions of the porcine PHKG2 gene, we obtained the complete open reading frame sequences and the determination of its expression by real-time PCR. Our spatial expression analysis showed that porcine PHKG2 gene was highly expressed in spleen, uterus and ovary. In contrast, low levels of expression of this gene were evident in heart, liver, lung, kidney, stomach, small intestine or fat, and much lower levels in skeletal muscle. Three SNPs, 785G>A, 866G>A and 875G>A were identified, their genotypes and allelic frequencies were analyzed. The frequencies of the G allele were dominant in Western pig breeds and the frequencies of the A allele were dominant in Chinese indigenous breeds in all analyzed polymorphisms. Haplotypes harboring these three polymorphisms were examined in five breeds, a total of 8 haplotypes were found in those breeds, which was equal to the theoretically expected number (23). The date presented here provided information about the functions of porcine PHKG2 gene.