The Melanocortin 1 Receptor Gene Variations in Some Bali Cattle with Color Pattern Deviations

Abstract

Coat color or pattern uniformity is one of the obvious outermost characteristics representing the quality of livestock breeds. Bali cattle have well known for their coat color or pattern uniformity standard and yet there are still found some irregularities in albino, injin, gading, bang, poleng, mores, panjut, and cundang. The MC1R (Melanocortin 1 Receptor) gene plays an important role in the pigmentation process and its variations are associated with differences in the skin and coat colors. The purpose of this study was to analyze the genetic variations of the MC1R gene in 10 Bali cattle reared in Bali Province which have aberrant color patterns. Blood samples were taken from the 10 Bali cattle consisting of three having normal coat color patterns, three albino, two injin, and two poleng. The blood samples were extracted using a commercial kit and the MC1R gene was then amplified by using a forward primer 5’ AGT TGA GCA GGA CCC TGA GA 3’, and a reverse primer 5’ CCA GTC ACC ACA GAG CGT TA 3’. The PCR products were further sequenced and analyzed to see variations of the MC1R gene of all cattle. The results indicated that the sequence of MC1R gene in the 10 Bali cattle has a nucleotide variation of 0.31% generated from Bos taurus and 0.21% generated from Bos indicus. While the nucleotide variation of the MC1R gene from cattle with color pattern deviations to the Bali cattle, namely 1.36% albino, 0.21% injin, and 0.10% poleng Bali cattle.