Single nucleotide polymorphism of growth hormone gene in Assam hill goats and their association with growth

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to study the occurrence of polymorphism in growth hormone (GH) gene in Assam Hill Goat and to associate polymorphic gene, if any, with body weights of the goats at 0 day, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age. A total of 256 blood samples were collected from male goats maintained at different field units and at the Goat Research Station, Assam Agricultural University, Burnihat under the “ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Goat Improvement”. The body weights of the same animals were recorded at 0 day, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age. PCR-RFLP analysis with Hae III restriction enzyme revealed two genotypes, viz. AA (25.39%) and AB (74.61%) with the gene frequency 0.63 (A) and 0.37 (B). The genotype frequency for AA and AB were found to be 0.40 and 0.60 respectively. Chi-square test revealed that the population was not in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. The mean body weight at 0 day, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age for AA and AB genotypes were recorded to be 1.18 ± 0.03 and 1.16 ± 0.02, 5.37 ± 0.11 and 4.78 ± 0.06, 7.50 ± 0.12 and 7.14 ± 0.08, 9.69 ± 0.14 and 10.03 ± 0.11 and 12.74 ± 0.17 and 13.32 ± 0.11 kg respectively. However, statistical analysis did not show any significant difference (p>0.05) in body weights among the different genotypes.