Analysis of pituitary specific transcription factor-1 gene polymorphism in several indigenous chinese cattle and crossbred cattle

Abstract

Since mutations on POU1F1gene possibly resulted in deficiency of growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and pituitary specific transcription factor-1 (POU1F1), this study revealed the polymorphism of cattle POU1F1-HinfI locus and analyzed the distribution of alleles on eight cattle breeds including five indigenous Chinese cattle and three crossbred cattle breeds. The PCR-RFLP analysis showed that allele B was the dominant allele. The frequencies of allele B varied from 0.535 to 0.868. Further study, distributions of genotypic and allelic frequencies at this locus were found to be significantly different among populations based on a x2-test (pB0.05), suggesting that the breed factor significantly affected the molecular genetic character of POU1F1gene. The genetic diversity analysis revealed that these populations had a wide spectrum of genetic diversity in cattle POU1F1-HinfI locus. In addition, the relationship between the polymorphism of POU1F1gene and milk production traits in Chinese Holsteins was also analyzed. The effects of POU1F1gene on milk yield, fat percent, pre somatic cell count, somatic cell count and somatic cell score were not homogeneous(p-0.05). And, POU1F1gene had homogeneous effect on protein percent (pB0.05). Protein percent of individuals with genotype AB was higher than those with BB. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.