COEXISTENCE OF POLYMORPHISM IN FECUNDITY GENES BMPR 1B AND GDF 9 OF INDIAN KENDRAPADA SHEEP

Present study was carried out to find out the status of mutations in three fecundity genes i.e. growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9/FecG), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15/FecX) and bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR1B/FecB) in Kendrapada sheep, the second most prolific sheep breed of India after Garole. Kendrapada ewes (n=85) were genotyped by Tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system-PCR and a total of eleven SNP points over these three candidate fecundity genes (one point on FecB and five points each on BMP15 and GDF9) were assessed. Out of eleven, two SNP points, viz. FecB and G4 of GDF9 were found to be polymorphic in this breed. In this sheep breed average litter size of the ewes with non-carriers, heterozygous carrier and homozygous carrier of FecB locus mutation were 1.61, 1.80 and 2.06 respectively. G4 point of the GDF9 gene was also polymorphic with average litter size of noncarriers, heterozygous carrier and homozygous carrier ewes were 1.63, 2.00 and 1.91 respectively. This study establishes Kendrapada sheep as the sixth sheep breed after Belclare/Cambridge, Lacaune, Small-tailed Han, Garole and Bayanbulak sheep, where coexisting polymorphism has been found in two different fecundity genes (BMPRIB and GDF9 genes).