• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 2005

PIGK(phosphatidylinositol glycan, class K) is a subunit of GPI transamidase that cleaves the signal peptide in proproteins and replaces it with GPI. In addition, the structure and synthesis of GPI are critically involved in some of the cellular actions of insulin. Therefore, PIGK would be essential for mammalian development and many specific cellular functions as well as for metabolic activity of insulin associated with GPI. Two types of" full-length cDNAs of porcine PIGK were cloned through RT-PCR and RACE experiments. One is thought to be a normal form(consist of 395 amino acids) and the other is considered as an alternative spliced form(consist of 371 amino acids) which contains additional 63 bps in intron 7. Since a stop codon was contained within the insertion, the spliced form has a shorter coding sequence than that of normal form. A missense mutation (T314I) in exon 6 was detected and used for genotyping to estimate association with the growth and fat deposition traits for 545 $F_2$ animals(Korean native boars ${\times}$ Landrace). From the PCR-RFLP analysis using HpyCH4III, CT genotype showed highly significant relationship(P< 0.01) with carcass fat contents.