Polymorphism in Exon 17 of Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase-1 {DGAT-1) Gene in Indian Sheep Breeds

Polymorphism in exon 17 of DGAT-1 gene was found to have significant effect on carcass weight and mutton. In the present study, 309 bp PCR products were amplified from genomic DNA of native Indian sheep breeds viz. Jaisalmeri, Deccani, Muzaffarnagri, Mandya, Nali, Nellore, Ganjam and Magra. Restriction endonuclease (RE) analysis was done using Alul RE enzyme. Three genotypes (CC, CT and TT) and two allelic variants (C and T) were identified. The frequency of allele C ranged from 0.75 to 0.99. The average heterozygosity of the locus was 0.2188. It was concluded that the native Indian sheep breeds showed variation in DGAT-1 exon 17 locus and it can be used as a marker for within breed selection of mutton type sheep, provided association is established between genotypes and mutton quality traits in native sheep.