Polymorphism of Candidate Genes for Meat Production in Lori Sheep

Calpastatin and callipyge have been known as two of the candidate genes in meat quality and quantity. Calpastatin gene and callipyge gene has been located to chromosome 5 and 18 of sheep. The objective of present study was to identification of calpastatin and callipyge genes polymorphism and survey of genotype structure in population of Lori sheep kept in Iran. Blood samples were taken from 120 Lori Sheep breed and Genomic DNA was extracted by salting out method. Polymorphism was identified applying the PCR-RFLP technique. The PCR products were digested with MspI and FaqI endonucleases for calpastatin gene and callipyge gene, respectively. In this population, three patterns were observed and genotype frequencies for AA, AB and BB detected 0.32, 0.63, and 0.05 for calpastatin gene respectively. The results obtained for the callipyge gene revealed that only the wild-type allele A was observed indicating that, only genotype AA was present in the population under consideration. So, the results confirmed that PCR-RFLP technique can be used to identify genetic variation in this breed and is a useful tool for selection plans based on marker-assisted selection.