No abstract

The genes that are part of the somatotropic axis play a crucial role in the regulation of growth and development of goat and other livestock animals. The identification of genetic polymorphisms in these genes will enable us to evaluate the biological relevance of such polymorphisms and to gain a better understanding of quantitative traits like growth. The present study was undertaken with the objective to analyze the caprine growth hormone receptor (GHR), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) genes to gain insight into the polymorphisms in these genes across different indigenous goat breeds in a panel of 80 animals. The comparative gene sequence analysis in all Capra hircus breeds under study revealed 31 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across different loci of GHR, IGF1, and IGFBP-3 genes. Out of 31 SNPs detected, 18, 8, and 5 SNPs were present in IGF-1, IGFBP-3, and GHR genes, respectively. All the mutations pointed out in the GHR and IGF1 genes were found to be synonymous and 6 of 8 SNPs in IGFBP-3 were found to be nonsynonymous. All the detected mutations were reported here for the first time. The frequencies of the SNPs were assessed in nine different goat breeds. Across breeds, the average frequency of the least frequent alleles ranged from 0.02 to 0.17.

The caprine Insulin like Growth Factor1 (IGF1) gene was analyzed for identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genetic structuring of Indian goat breeds. A panel of 80 samples belonging to nine Indian goat breeds (Capra hircus) including three large sized breeds (Jamunapari, Beetal and Jakhrana); three medium sized breeds (Sirohi, Barbari, and Osmanabadi) and three small sized breeds (Black Bengal, Changthangi, and Gaddi) were screened for SNP identification and diversity analysis. The comparative gene sequence analysis of all the nine goat breeds studied revealed a total of 18 SNPs in IGF1 gene. All the nucleotide changes were found to be synonymous. The mean observed heterozygosity was found to be maximum (0.074) in Sirohi, Beetal, Osmanabadi, and Gaddi breeds of goat, whereas it is found to be minimum (0.019) in Black Bengal breed of goat. The rest of the breeds were intermediate in terms of heterozygosity. The same has been confirmed by allele frequency distribution across the studied loci. Barbari and Gaddi were found to be more differentiated (0.0123), Changthangi and Jamunapari were least differentiated (0.00110) based on Nei's genetic distance.

The present study was undertaken on data of 150 Frieswal cows (a new strain of Sahiwal x Holstein Friesian) maintained at Military Dairy Farm, Agra, over a period of 15 years from 1996-2010, based on age at first calving. The overall means for age at first calving (AFC), weight at first calving (WFC), first lactation milk yield (FLMY), first lactation period (FLP), first dry period (FDP) and first calving interval (FCI) were 928.07±0.08 days, 369.87±0.92 kg, 4054.35±22.14 litres, 301.84±0.26 days, 99.40±0.15 days and 401.33±0.33 days respectively. The period of calving has significant influence on AFC and WFC, whereas non-significant influence on FLMY, FLP and FDP. The season showed significant influence on all the traits under study except FLMY. Both period and season has highly significant influence on FCI.

ABSTRACT. During the monsoon of 1956 the Geological Survey of India sponsored an expedition to the Bara Shig ri G lacier (lat. 32° 16' N., long. 77° 40 ' E .), Kangra Distri ct, in the great Hima layan ranges of the Punja b, as part of the Indian programme fo r the International Geophysical Year 1956-57 . Topographica l maps of t he terminal 5 m iles of the glacier, on scales of I : 63,360 a nd I : 10,000, were prepared for comparison of morphological c hanges since it was last surveyed 50 years ago. The glacier appears to have shrunk considerabl y but its full extent could not be assessed b ecause of insufficient earlier dat a. The Sh igr i Stream now emerges from a differ ent part of the glacier snou t. In ord er to assi st fu ture surveys th ree photographic stations were esta blished.