Identification of Polymorphism Melanocortin 4 Receptor Gene and its Association with Egg Production Traits in Turkey

turkey is important all over the world in order to improve some of food supply required for several reasons such as its weight gain and high growth rate, low feed conversion ratio, and production of more eggs and meat. The MC4R gene is one of the most important candidate genes in different species which can affect the energy homeostasis and body weight regulation. Identity the genetic aspects and major gene influence on energy balance, production, fertility, safety are the recent interests of genetic and breeding researchers. The objective of this study was undertaken to identify polymorphisms of the MC4R gene using PCR single-strand conformational polymorphism (PCR–SSCP) analysis and to evaluate association of these polymorphisms with egg performance in turkey.

For doing this research in order to investigate polymorphism of MC4R, 100 laying turkeys, randomly selected then all animals were blooded. Genomic DNA with optimal quality was extracted from blood samples using the protocol of Boom et al. PCR was done for amplifying a fragment in size of 469 bp of MC4R gene. The single strand conformation polymorphism technique (SSCP) was used to determine genotype. A statistical model was done by using GLM of SPSS software to find the association between the SSCP genotype patterns of PCR products with egg performance in turkey.

The results of PCR-SSCP by using polyacrylamide gel and silver nitrate showed that this population was polymorphic at the studied loci and four different genotypes AB, AC, BC and CC, with frequencies of 52.1%, 4.13%, 22.93% and 20.48% respectively were observed. Genotype AB and genotype AC has the highest and lowest genotypic frequencies, respectively.

The results indicated that the MC4R gene is polymorph and there was no significant difference between the genotype patterns and egg performance (egg mass, mean egg weight, and the number of eggs). Due to the importance of the MC4R gene, the study of this gene locus suggested in larger populations.