Sequence Analysis and Identification of Polymorphism in Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase1 (DGAT1) Gene in Iranian Buffaloes

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase1 (DGAT1) has been introduced as a strong potential candidate gene for milk fat content in cattle. DGAT1 gene plays a key role in the final step of triglyceride synthesis. In this study, the genetic variability in the region spanning exon 1 to exon 2 of the buffalo DGAT1 gene was investigated by DNA sequencing. Two hundred buffaloes belonging to three indigenous populations (Khuzestani, Shomali and Azari) were analyzed. No polymorphisms or mutations were found within the coding region of the DGAT1 gene. Analysis of the non-coding region (1935 bp) revealed the identification of eight SNPs located in intron 1 at nucleotide positions g.1701C>T, g.3097C>T, g.3542G>A, g.3627C>T, g.3674G>A, g.3738C>T, g.3741G>C and g.3815C>A, four of which were novel in compare to the reference sequence. High diversity SNPs found at nucleotide positions g.1701C>T, g.3674G>A and g.3815C>A, which displayed intermediate frequencies in the studied population. These findings suggest that detected allele variations might be considered in marker-assisted selection of milk production traits in buffalo.