Association of polymorphisms in BMPR-1B gene exon-9 with litter size in Dorset, Mongolian, and Small Tail Han ewes.

Objective: The present study was to investigate the association of polymorphisms in exon-9 of the BMPR-1B gene (C864T) with litter size in 240 Dorset, 232 Mongolian, and 124 Small Tail Han ewes.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from 596 ewes and genomic DNA was extracted using the phenol: chloroform extraction method. The 304-bp amplified PCR product was analyzed for polymorphism by SSCP method. The genotypic frequency and allele frequency of BMPR-1B gene exon-9 were computed after sequence alignment. The χ2 independence test was used to analyze the association of genotypic frequency and litter size traits with in each ewe breed, where the phenotype was directly treated as category.

Results: The results indicated two different banding patterns AA and AB for this fragment, with the most frequent genotype and allele of AA and A. Calculated Chi-square test for BMPR-1B gene exon-9 was found to be more than that of p value at the 5% level of significance, indicating that the population under study was in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium for all ewes. The χ2 independence test analyses indicated litter size differences between genotypes was not the same for each breed. The 304-bp nucleotide sequence was subjected to BLAST analysis, and the C864T mutation significantly affected litter size in singletons, twins and multiples. The heterozygosity in exon-9 of BMPR-1B gene could increase litter size for all the studied ewes.

Conclusion: Consequently, it appears that the polymorphism BMPR-1B gene exon-9 detected in this study may have potential use in marker assisted selection for litter size in Dorset, Mongolian, and Small Tail Han ewes.