Genetic characterization of myostatin and callipyge genes in Egyptian small ruminant breeds

Abstract

Background and Objective: Growth and meat quality are economically important traits in domestic animals. Due to the positive effect of MSTN and CLPG variation on the growth performance and quality of meat in different livestock, the aim of the present study is the identification of the genetic polymorphism and SNPs in these two genes in Egyptian sheep and goat breeds. Methodology: Genomic DNA was extracted from blood of 171 animal belonging to Barki, Rahmani and Ossimi sheep breeds as well as Baladi, Barki and Zaraibi goat breeds. Results: The PCR amplified fragments (337 bp) from MSTN gene were digested using Haell restriction enzyme. The results declared that sheep and goat animals tested in this study are genotyped as "mm". After the digestion, the amplified products gave three fragments at 125,118 and 94 bp resulted from the presence of two restriction sites (GG∧CC) at positions 125∧126 and 219∧220. The nucleotide sequences of allele "m" for Egyptian goat and sheep MSTN were submitted to GenBank database with the accession No. KP120861 and KP120862, respectively. The CLPG gene amplified PCR fragments of 214 bp and were then digested with Avâ\ endonuclease. Due to the presence of a restriction site(G∧GACC) at position 77∧78, all tested animals were genotyped as "NN" where all fragments were digested to 137 and 77 bp fragments. The nucleotide sequences of allele "N" for CLPG gene in Egyptian goat and sheep have the accession No. KM597158 and KM569669, respectively in GenBank database. Conclusion: Results concluded that there was no polymorphism or variation in amplified fragments of MSTN and CLPG genes.