Identification of PEPCK-C polymorphism using PCR- RFLP method and its association with economic traits in native fowl of Khorasan Razavi province

This study aimed to determine the PEPCK-C gene polymorphism in a population of native fowl in Khorasan Razavi. This gene encodes an enzyme with the same name in most organisms. This enzyme plays a key role in the gluconeogenesis. There are two types of this gene namely, cytosolic (PEPCK-C) and mitochondrial (PEPCK-M) types. In this study, blood samples were randomly collected from 100 native fowl of Khorasan Razavi. DNA was extracted using modified salting out method and then a fragment with the length of 1000 bp using a pair of primers was amplified. This fragment covers the promoter and exon 3 of PEPCK-C gene. For genotyping, the PCRRFLP method using the BstEII digesting enzyme was performed. The GLM procedure of SAS 9.1 was used to study the association of the PEPCK-C gene polymorphism with economic traits. Three genotype patterns including AA, AB and BB were observed with frequencies of 0.46, 0.35 and 0.19, respectively. The effects of genotypes were significant for birth weight (P