title: Polymorphism of GDF9 gene and its association with litter size in goats.
abstract: Growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) was studied as a candidate gene for high prolificacy in goats. The polymorphism of exon 1 and flanking of GDF9 gene was detected by PCR-SSCP in five goat breeds with different prolificacy. Three genotypes (AA, AB and BB) were detected in goat breeds joined and two silent mutations (c.183A>C and c.336C>T) were identified in comparison genotype AA with genotype BB. Heterozygous genotype AB and wild type BB were detected in all five goat breeds and homozygous genotype AA was only detected in Jining Grey goats. The frequencies of genotypes AA, AB and BB were 0.18, 0.42 and 0.40 in Jining Grey goats, respectively. The genotype distribution was different (P < 0.01) between high prolificacy breed (Jining Grey goat) and low prolificacy breeds (Boer, Wendeng Dairy, Liaoning Cashmere and Beijing native goats). The Jining Grey goat does with genotype AA and AB had 0.72 (P < 0.01) and 0.56 (P < 0.01) kids more than those with genotype BB, respectively. The does with genotype AA had 0.16 (P > 0.05) kids more than those with genotype AB. These indicated that the allele A may have certain correlation with prolificacy in Jining Grey goats.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Farm Animal Genetic Resources and Utilization of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China. mxchu@263.net
authors.forename: M X
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Z H
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: X W
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D055429:Growth Differentiation Factor 9 / Q000235:genetics*; D008098:Litter Size; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010375:Pedigree; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D055429:Growth Differentiation Factor 9