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Two sequence variants of the aldolase C ( ALDOC) gene were discovered based on comparison of the sequences from an altiplano chicken breed (Tibetan chicken) and two lowland breeds (White Leghorn and ShouGuang). Gel-shift results indicated that one of these variants, L25375:c.310-258G>A, was able to bind hypoxia-induced factor-l (HIF1A), therefore, functioning as a hypoxia response element (HRE). The combined activity of the HRE and HIF1A could increase under the influence of a hypoxic stimulus. Hypoxia leads to increased death rates of chicken embryos, while the L25375:c.310-258G>A described herein is prevalent in healthy embryos grown under hypoxic conditions. Fluorescence quantitative real-time PCR results revealed that HIF1A upregulated the transcript level of the glycolytic enzyme ALDOC in the brain and skeletal muscle of animals subjected to hypoxia. Thus, a large amount of ATP is produced by increased glycolysis, allowing the organism to meet energy metabolism demands. As such, we believe this sequence variant is an adaptation to external anoxic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Nanog mapping in chromosome 5 in swine. Homeoprotein Nanog is a transcription factor expressed specifically in pluripotent cells, and it can maintain self-renewal of embryonic stem (ES) cells even when they lack LIF/Stat 3. The Nanog-deficient ES cells cannot self-renew and differentiate into extraembryonic endoderm lineage, inner cell mass cells that lack Nanog failed to produce epiblast and only generated parietal endoderm-like cells. Thus, Nanog is an important factor for maintaining the pluripotency of pluripotent cells. Authors conclude that they had identified the pig orthologue of the human Nanog gene on the basis of DNA sequence similarity and homologous map locations in human and pig.