Effects of PGR and ESRα genotypes on the pregnancy rates after embryo transfer in Luxi cattle.

Progesterone receptor (PGR) and estrogen receptor alpha (ESRα), which mediate the biological effects of the steroid hormones progesterone and estrogen, play a central role in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. The objectives of this study were to detect bovine PGR and ESRα genes polymorphisms and analyze their relationships with the pregnancy rates after embryo transfer and the hormone concentrations at the day of embryo transfer. One reported SNP of PGR G59752C and a novel SNP of ESRα G75935C were analyzed in 132 recipients of Luxi cattle. For the PGR gene, recipients with g.59752 GG and g.59752 GC genotypes had obviously higher pregnancy rates than g.59752 CC genotype. For the ESRα gene, recipients with g.75935 GC and g.75935 CC genotypes had obviously higher pregnancy rates than g.75935 GG genotype. Furthermore, the same tendency was observed for these two genes that the same genotype groups with high pregnancy rates had high progesterone concentration and low estrogen concentration at the day of embryo transfer. These results showed for the first time that PGR G59752C and ESRα G75935C polymorphisms had obvious effects on the pregnancy rates after embryo transfer, and indicated that PGR G59752C and ESRα G75935C polymorphisms could be potential markers for recipient selection of embryo transfer.