1Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, Tamil Naidu, India
2Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Orathanadu, Thanjavur, Kerala, India
3Directorate of Research, TANUVAS, Madhavaram Milk Colony, Chennai, Tamil Naidu, India
4Department of Animal Biotechnology, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai, Tamil Naidu, India
*Corresponding author: AR Sahu; Email: amiyawarrior37@gmail.com
Online published on 18 March, 2016.
Myostatin (MSTN) is one of the most important growth regulatory genes that resulted in higher growth of skeletal muscles in livestock species. So the study was undertaken to identify the polymorphism of myostatin (MSTN) gene as a genetic marker for growth traits in Madras Red, Mecheri and Nilagiri sheep breeds of Tamil Nadu. The blood samples were collected from unrelated animals of Madras Red (n = 127), Mecheri (n = 101) and Nilagiri (103) breeds of sheep from different agroclimatic regions of Tamil Nadu. Part of 5’UTR, exon 1 and part of intron 1 (797 bp) of MSTN gene was amplified with suitable primers. The amplified products were digested with the Msp I and Hae III restriction enzymes. But both the PCR-RFLP results of Msp I and Hae III was found to be monomorphic in all the three breeds of sheep indicating that the MSTN gene is highly conserved and of use in evolutionary studies.
MSTN gene, PCR-RFLP, monomorphism, sheep
