Studying polymorphism in exon 17 of the DGAT1 gene and its association with milk fat percentage in the Kurdi sheep breed of Shirvan

Abstract

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) is a microsomal enzyme that accelerates the final stage of the synthesis of triglycerides, means converting diacylglycerol to triacylglycerol. The aim of this study was to investigate polymorphism in exon 17 of the DGAT1 gene and their associations with milk fat percentage in Kurdi sheep breed in Hussein Abad breeding station of Shirvan. Hence, milk records of 100 ewes were randomly selected and milk fat percentage was measured by Total Eco milk device. Indeed, ewe DNA was extracted and amplified by specific primers for a 309 bp fragment of exon 17 of this gene. Genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP digested with AluI endonuclease enzyme. Frequencies of C and T alleles were 0.65 and 0.35, respectively. Statistical analysis was conducted by GLM procedure of SAS 9.1 software and showed significant association of genotypes with milk fat percentage (PDGAT1 to increase sheep milk fat percentage in marker assisted selection programs.

Keywords

• dgat1 gene
• polymorphism
• sheep
• milk fat percentage