Growth Hormone Gene Polymorphisms in Mature Healthy Male Muscovy Ducks in Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Animal Breedding & Biotechnology Department, Faculty of Vet Med, Zagazig University

2 Animal Wealth Development Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, 44511, Egypt

Abstract

Blood samples were obtained from 28 mature healthy male Muscovy ducks for screening of a partial sequence of Growth hormone gene (GH gene) for single nucleotide polymorphisms using PCR amplification of the extracted DNA. The results of our research revealed one locus of exon 2 of growth hormone gene and its partial flanking intron. Polymorphisms in this locus were investigated by using direct sequencing and single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) technique. One unique pattern of SSCP was detected. Nucleotide sequencing was performed to endorse the current result which proved the absence of single nucleotides' polymorphisms (SNPs) or any other type of polymorphisms in the studied locus. The DNA sequencing and PCR-SSCP patterns confirmed that there was no polymorphism in all studied birds. In turn, it is spelled that PCR-SSCP failed to produce electrophoresis patterns capable of discriminating between the GH gene loci in Muscovy duck breed revealing no polymorphism in all studied individuals. Also, we compared our sequences with the published sequence on the gene bank of GH gene in Mallard ducks under the following accession number AB158762.1. Three SNPs were detected between Muscovy and Mallard breeds which are (94 A-G, 271 C-T and 298 G-A) these SNPs led to change of two amino acids proline and valine amino acids in GH protein in mallard ducks into serine and isoleucine in Muscovy ducks.  In conclusion, these changes in the nucleotide sequence, amino acid and protein chain may be the main cause of differences of the phenotypic features, productive and reproductive traits between Muscovy and mallard duck breeds.

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