Applied Cell Biology

Correlation between growth hormone gene polymorphisms and milk production trait in Holstein cattle

Salah Abdel-Rahman, Abeer El-Nahas, Shaaban Hemeda, Sherif Nasr

¹Department ofNucleicAcidResearch,Genetic Engineering andBiotechnologyResearch Institute, City of ScientificResearch andTechnologicalApplications,Alexandria, (EGYPT)
²Department ofAnimalHusbandry andWealthDevelopment, Faculty ofVeterinaryMedicine, AlexandriaUniversity, (EGYPT)

Abstract

PCR–RFLP technique was developed for association between growth hormone (GH) gene polymorphisms andmilk production trait inHolstein cattle. Forty-eight female Holstein cattle reared under Egyptian conditions were precisely selected according to theirmilk productivity andDNAfromblood samples of these animals was extracted to amplify 329-bp of the gene encodingGH. Based on the breeding value, the 48 animals were ordered from the highest to the lowest milk productivity. Restriction analysis of PCRRFLP- HapaII of the GH gene (329-bp) showed three various genotypes MM, MN and NN with frequencies 0.04, 0.25 and 0.71, respectively. The frequencies of the M and N alleles were 0.17 and 0.83, respectively. The results indicated that the MN cows yielded more milk than MM and NN cows. Sequencing (GenBank JF826521) revealed that six mutations (115C! T, 249C! T, 251C! A, 261T! C, 264T! Cand 269T! C) occurred in genotype NN of Holstein cattle. These findings can be used as markerassisted selection (MAS) for high milk production trait in Holstein cattle.

Keywords:

Holstein cattle; Milk production; GH gene polymorphisms; DNA sequencing.