Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene

Coat color in Holstein dairy cattle is primarily controlled by the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene, a central determinant of black (eumelanin) vs. red/brown pheomelanin synthesis across animal species. The major MC1R alleles in Holsteins are Dominant Black (MC1RD) and Recessive Red (MC1Re). A no...

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Main Authors: Dorshorst, Ben, Henegar, Corneliu, Liao, Xiaoping, Sällman Almén, Markus, Rubin, Carl-Johan, Ito, Shosuke, Wakamatsu, Kazumasa, Stothard, Paul, Van Doormaal, Brian, Plastow, Graham, Barsh, Gregory S., Andersson, Leif
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2015
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456281/
id pubmed-4456281
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-44562812015-06-09 Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene Dorshorst, Ben Henegar, Corneliu Liao, Xiaoping Sällman Almén, Markus Rubin, Carl-Johan Ito, Shosuke Wakamatsu, Kazumasa Stothard, Paul Van Doormaal, Brian Plastow, Graham Barsh, Gregory S. Andersson, Leif Research Article Coat color in Holstein dairy cattle is primarily controlled by the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene, a central determinant of black (eumelanin) vs. red/brown pheomelanin synthesis across animal species. The major MC1R alleles in Holsteins are Dominant Black (MC1RD) and Recessive Red (MC1Re). A novel form of dominant red coat color was first observed in an animal born in 1980. The mutation underlying this phenotype was named Dominant Red and is epistatic to the constitutively activated MC1RD. Here we show that a missense mutation in the coatomer protein complex, subunit alpha (COPA), a gene with previously no known role in pigmentation synthesis, is completely associated with Dominant Red in Holstein dairy cattle. The mutation results in an arginine to cysteine substitution at an amino acid residue completely conserved across eukaryotes. Despite this high level of conservation we show that both heterozygotes and homozygotes are healthy and viable. Analysis of hair pigment composition shows that the Dominant Red phenotype is similar to the MC1R Recessive Red phenotype, although less effective at reducing eumelanin synthesis. RNA-seq data similarly show that Dominant Red animals achieve predominantly pheomelanin synthesis by downregulating genes normally required for eumelanin synthesis. COPA is a component of the coat protein I seven subunit complex that is involved with retrograde and cis-Golgi intracellular coated vesicle transport of both protein and RNA cargo. This suggests that Dominant Red may be caused by aberrant MC1R protein or mRNA trafficking within the highly compartmentalized melanocyte, mimicking the effect of the Recessive Red loss of function MC1R allele. Public Library of Science 2015-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4456281/ /pubmed/26042826 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0128969 Text en © 2015 Dorshorst et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Dorshorst, Ben
Henegar, Corneliu
Liao, Xiaoping
Sällman Almén, Markus
Rubin, Carl-Johan
Ito, Shosuke
Wakamatsu, Kazumasa
Stothard, Paul
Van Doormaal, Brian
Plastow, Graham
Barsh, Gregory S.
Andersson, Leif
spellingShingle Dorshorst, Ben
Henegar, Corneliu
Liao, Xiaoping
Sällman Almén, Markus
Rubin, Carl-Johan
Ito, Shosuke
Wakamatsu, Kazumasa
Stothard, Paul
Van Doormaal, Brian
Plastow, Graham
Barsh, Gregory S.
Andersson, Leif
Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene
author_facet Dorshorst, Ben
Henegar, Corneliu
Liao, Xiaoping
Sällman Almén, Markus
Rubin, Carl-Johan
Ito, Shosuke
Wakamatsu, Kazumasa
Stothard, Paul
Van Doormaal, Brian
Plastow, Graham
Barsh, Gregory S.
Andersson, Leif
author_sort Dorshorst, Ben
title Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene
title_short Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene
title_full Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene
title_fullStr Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene
title_full_unstemmed Dominant Red Coat Color in Holstein Cattle Is Associated with a Missense Mutation in the Coatomer Protein Complex, Subunit Alpha (COPA) Gene
title_sort dominant red coat color in holstein cattle is associated with a missense mutation in the coatomer protein complex, subunit alpha (copa) gene
description Coat color in Holstein dairy cattle is primarily controlled by the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene, a central determinant of black (eumelanin) vs. red/brown pheomelanin synthesis across animal species. The major MC1R alleles in Holsteins are Dominant Black (MC1RD) and Recessive Red (MC1Re). A novel form of dominant red coat color was first observed in an animal born in 1980. The mutation underlying this phenotype was named Dominant Red and is epistatic to the constitutively activated MC1RD. Here we show that a missense mutation in the coatomer protein complex, subunit alpha (COPA), a gene with previously no known role in pigmentation synthesis, is completely associated with Dominant Red in Holstein dairy cattle. The mutation results in an arginine to cysteine substitution at an amino acid residue completely conserved across eukaryotes. Despite this high level of conservation we show that both heterozygotes and homozygotes are healthy and viable. Analysis of hair pigment composition shows that the Dominant Red phenotype is similar to the MC1R Recessive Red phenotype, although less effective at reducing eumelanin synthesis. RNA-seq data similarly show that Dominant Red animals achieve predominantly pheomelanin synthesis by downregulating genes normally required for eumelanin synthesis. COPA is a component of the coat protein I seven subunit complex that is involved with retrograde and cis-Golgi intracellular coated vesicle transport of both protein and RNA cargo. This suggests that Dominant Red may be caused by aberrant MC1R protein or mRNA trafficking within the highly compartmentalized melanocyte, mimicking the effect of the Recessive Red loss of function MC1R allele.
publisher Public Library of Science
publishDate 2015
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456281/
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