Investigation of Calpastatin Gene Polymorphism in Egyptian Sheep and Goat Breeds

Othman E. Othman*, Hassan R. Darwish, Ahmed Abou-Eisha and Adel E. El-Din

Cell Biology Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Egypt.

Corresponding Author E-mail: othmanmah@yahoo.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2343

ABSTRACT: Calpastatin is an inhibitor for calpain enzyme system and it has an essential role in meat quality and its tenderness. This trait is of great interest for meat industry and consumers. Molecular genetics techniques help in fishing out of molecular markers which affect the economically production traits in farm animals. Genetic polymorphism of CAST gene and its association with meat quality was reported in different farm animals including cattle, goat and sheep. This work aimed to indentify CAST/MspI genetic polymorphism and its SNPs in Egyptian sheep and goat breeds. The results showed the presence of two genotypes in 140 tested animals, GG and AG with the absence of AA genotypes. The frequencies of GG and AG genotypes in sheep were 65.9% and 34.1%, respectively whereas their frequencies in goat were 56.9% and 43.1%, respectively. The total frequencies for GG and AG genotypes an all 140 tested sheep and goat animals were 62.1% and 37.9%, respectively. The nomenclature of these genotypes was done in this study according to the different nucleotides which were identified after sequencing. The sequence analysis of A and G alleles represented a single nucleotide polymorphism (A→G) at position 286 in the amplified fragment. These nucleotide sequences were submitted to GenBank under the accession numbers, KX722533 and KX722534 (Ovis aries, alleles G and A, respectively) and KX722535 and KX722536 (Capra hircus, alleles G and A, respectively). It is concluded that, CAST genetic polymorphisms in Egyptian sheep and goat breeds were similar to those in other sheep populations around the world where the frequencies of alleles and genotypes with G nucleotide is dominant over the others with A nucleotide. Also, A®G polymorphism in exon 1 of CAST gene is considered a potential molecular marker for marker assisted selection concerning growth rate where the genotypes with G nucleotide is associated with the significant high weight gain in different small ruminant breeds.

KEYWORDS: CAST; PCR-RFLP; DNA sequencing; Sheep; Goat

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