Association of myostatin gene with on-field sporting performance (Jallikattu) of indigenous cattle breeds (Bos indicus) of Tamil Nadu

Abstract
Now-a-days, sports genomics is a new emerging field to identify the candidate genes with known biological utility, directly or indirectly regulating the developmental processes of the sporting traits in domestic animals intended for sporting events globally. Blood samples were collected from sporting bulls (n=261) in Madurai, Trichy and Pudhukottai districts of Tamil Nadu for isolation of genomic DNA. A total of 13 overlapping sets of primers were generated for PCR amplification of Myostatin gene including its promotor region for molecular characterization. On comparison with Bos taurus sequence, two variations were detected in exon 1 and these variations were found to be synonymous mutations. The exon 2 became a highly homologous and conserved region. The third exon had two variations which were also synonymous. The intron 1 region was found to have 12 types of single base pair variations; two single base pair insertions; and 16 bp and 12 bp insertions. Twenty single base pair variations and one ‘T’ insertion were observed in intron 2 regions. There were nine types of variations found in the promotor region and the binding sites for transcription factors at SNP positions of -1052 and -644 were identified as Oct-1 and COMP-1 respectively. Genotyping of SNP at position -644 revealed the predominance of genotype CC with the estimated frequencies of 0.81, 0.69, 1.00 and 0.80 in Pulikulam, Kangayam, Umblachery and non-descript bulls, respectively. The genotypes (CC, CT and TT) were not associated with the velocity, stride length, time spent within the boundary of bull tamers and time taken to get tamed. But, TT genotype had higher mean velocity and highest time spent within boundary of bull tamers and CC genotype had higher stride length. In conclusion, it could be inferred that the MSTN gene would be used as a marker for sporting traits, but it needs extensive study with respect to association with androgen receptor in sporting bulls.
Description
TNV_20thMVC_PP_Feb-2020_OP38
Keywords
Veterinary Science
Citation