Veterinary World

 

ISSN (Online): 2231-0916
 

 Home


 Editorial board


 Instructions for authors


 Reviewer guideline


 Open access policy


 Archives


 FAQ


 

Open Access

Copyright: The authors. This article is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.


Research

1.   Molecular marker within Major histocompatibility complex linked with general growth in sheep - Manzoor R. Mir and H. Geldermann

Veterinary World 2(7): 253-257

 



The genetic diversity of a microsatellite marker linked to MHC-DRB1 gene in German Merino sheep was studied and association of this marker with growth trait in German sheep was ascertained. This experiment constituted four consecutive lambing among seven Merinoland rams and 249 ewes and a total of 16 MHC-DRB1 microsatellite alleles were detected, ranging from 353 bp to 857 bp. For ewes carrying the allele 394 and 857 bp the birth weight of lambs was about 400 g higher as compared to the residual group of ewes. Additionally, some genotype classes in ewes and rams too have variant effect on the growth traits in sheep. The observed associations could be due to differences in disease resistance, cell recognition or tissue differentiations between carriers of various MHC haplotypeswhich can in-turn affect the individual growth performance.

Key words: Sheep, DRB1, Microsatellite, Growth, QTL, MHC