Genetic characterization of three fertility genes in Egyptian sheep and goat breeds

Abstract

One of the effective approaches for genetic improvement of productivity traits in farm animals is markerassisted selection (MAS) depending on the genetic markers that are associated with superior productivity traits. The improvement of fertility trait is one of the main targets in small ruminant breeding programs. This work aimed to identify RFLPs and SNPs variations among three fertility genes in Egyptian sheep and goat breeds. RFLP analysis of the amplified fragments at 462-bp from exon 1 of GDF9 using HpaII endonuclease showed the presence of two genotypes GG and AG. Depending on the presence of the restriction site of TaqI endonuclease (T^CGA) in the 348-bp amplified fragment from exon 5 of GPR54 gene, the results showed the presence of two alleles, C and T with three genotypes, viz. CC, TT and CT. The PCR amplified fragments of 190-bp from FecB gene were digested with AvaII restriction enzyme and the results showed that all tested animals had the same homozygous non-carrier genotype (++). It was concluded that the identification of genetic structure and nucleotide sequences of GDF9, GPR54 and FecB genes is considered the first step towards the genetic improvements of fertility trait in Egyptian small ruminants where these genes are associated with different fertility traits parameter like ovulation rate, ovarian follicular development, puberty and litter size in small ruminant breeds.

Detection of MC4R Gene Genotypes and A Relationship SNP13 to Productive and Reproductive Performance in Iraqi Local Goats and Shami Goats

“…Where the results of our study coincided with the results of what was presented by the results of Othman et al [42] appeared in this study on Egyptian goats and sheep, where the animals had fertilization and a high number of births and a high fertility rate, as most of them had a genotype of GG 85.4%, the most influential in terms of fertility in these study, while the genotype GA was less effective 14.6%. indicated Kasiriyan et al [43] that sheep animals with genotype GG have high fertility and a higher number of births than animals with genotype GA, while animals with genotype AA have low fertility. It is due to a reason, as indicated by Dnce et al [44], due to genetic factors, as well as that the increase in female body weight, which is due to the genetic influence at the time of fertilization, leads to an increase in fertility in goats, and that the correlation factor between the fertility rate and body weight at fertilization is highly significant (P< 0.01) up to a fertility of 0.88%.…”

Polymorphism identification in ovine KISS1R/GPR54 gene among pure and crossbreeds of Iranian sheep

“…In the present work, we have detected seven SNPs in the KISS1R/GPR54 gene located on ovine chromosomes 5 among the four studied Iranian breeds (Table 2). This gene displays numerous polymorphisms in livestock that have been associated with reproductive traits in cattle (Chen et al, 2011), goat (Feng et al, 2009;Cao et al, 2011;Ahlawat et al, 2015;Othman et al, 2018), sheep (Chu et al, 2012;Tang et al, 2012;Othman et al, 2018), and pig (Li et al, 2008). In ovine, Tang et al (2012) detected two mutations in the GPR54 gene in Small Tail Han and Corriedale sheep.…”

Overview of Marker-assisted Selection in Animal Breeding

“…With MAS, breeders can now select individuals based on their genetic profile, enabling more accurate and efficient breeding programs. Markers associated with desired traits inform decisions about which individuals to breed, moving beyond reliance solely on physical appearance [14].…”