Growth hormone gene polymorphism and its association with body length and withers height in sirohi and barbari goats

Abstract

An investigation was undertaken to study growth hormone (GH) gene polymorphism and its association with body length and withers height at different ages in kids of Sirohi and Barbari goats. Exon-2 and exon-3 regions of GH gene were amplified in 40 kids from the breeds. The RFLP pattern for HaeIII showed the presence of two genotypic variants (AB and BB) with their respective frequencies of 0.82 and 0.18 in Sirohi and 0.90 and 0.10 in Barbari goats. The frequencies of A and B alleles were respectively, 0.41 and 0.59 in Sirohi and 0.45 and 0.55 in Barbari breed. None of the two breeds was in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for these variants. The least squares analysis of variance revealed non-significant effect of GH genotype and breed x genotype interactions on body length and withers height from birth to 180 days.