Investigation of Polymorphism in Exon 4 of GH Gene and Its Association with Growth Traits in Kermani Sheep using PCR- SSCP

In this study, blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of 109 Kermani sheep from Kermani sheep breeding station. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood sample using modified salting out method and polymerase chain reactions were performed for amplification of 214 bp fragment containing a part of exon 4 of GH gene. Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) was used for genotyping. For this purpose, vertical electrophoresis of PCR products was performed on 12% acrylamide gel, at 300 V, for 17 h at 4 C˚. Silver-staining of gels, resulted three genotypic patterns of 1, 2 and 3 with frequencies of 20.18%, 35.77% and 44.03%, respectively. Analysis of variance was performed using SAS software. The results showed no­ significant association between the different patterns of GH gene and growth traits.