Bioinformatics analysis of melanocortin-1 receptor gene for silver fox and other species

Abstract

The MC1R gene plays an important role in pigment synthesis in many species including human being. In the study, the coding sequence of the silver fox MC1R gene was obtained by the method of PCR direct sequencing and aligning, the length was 954 bp. A total of 119 MC1R gene sequences with the complete Coding regions (CDS) belonging to 23 species were analyzed and the differentiation within and among the species was also studied. The results showed that most of the species have the stop codon TGA. Only Gallus gallus and Cereopsis novaehollandiae of Phasianidae and Danio rerio, respectively used TAG and TAA as the stop codon. The length of the MC1R gene with the complete CDS varies greatly, from 924-972 bp but most of the species had 954 bp. Observed genetic diversity was higher among species than within species and Canis lupus familiaris had more polymorphisms than any other species. Differentiation of the MC1R? gene was obvious among species and the reconstructed phylogenetic tree was basically consistent with the taxonomy in the National Center for Biotechnology Information. © Medwell Journals, 2012.