Using high resolution melting analysis to identify variation of NPY, LEP and IGF-1 genes in Angus cattle

Neuropeptide Y (NPY), leptin (LEP) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) have been proposed as valuable predictors of relative differences among individuals in the regulation of whole-body energy metabolism. The main objective of this study was to assess the allelic frequency of relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NPY, LEP and IGF-1 genes using high resolution melting (HRM) analysis. One hundred thirty six female calves from five Aberdeen Angus stud farms were genotyped. An A/G SNP located in intron 2 of the NPY gene (SNPNPY), a C/T SNP located in exon 2 of the LEP gene (SNPLEP), and a T/C SNP located in the promoter region of IGF-1 gene (SNPIGF-1), were the markers genotyped. The favorable allele frequencies in the whole population were 0.23, 0.48 and 0.39 for SNPNPY, SNPLEP and SNPIGF-1, respectively. The average value of FST for the three SNPs in the whole population was 0.015. The analysis of these SNPs indicated a low frequency of favorable alleles and a high homogeneity of the Angus population evaluated. The HRM genotyping described in this report provides a convenient alternative approach to identify SNPs in bovine genes.