Monomorphism Of Growth Hormone Receptor Gene in South Indian Breeds of Sheep

The study of candidate genes, based on physiological effects is an important tool to identify polymorphism of the gene to be used in marker assisted selection programme. On this basis to evaluate genetic diversity, a study was undertaken to identify the polymorphism of growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene as a genetic marker for growth traits in Madras Red, Mecheri and Nilagiri breeds of sheep. Part of exon 10 (895 bp) of GHR gene was amplified with suitable primers. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the amplified product using Msp\ and Haelll enzymes was found to be monomorphic in all the three breeds of sheep indicating that the GHRgene is highly conserved and of use in evolutionary studies.