MTNR-1A Gene Polymorphism in Two Tropical Sheep breeds of South India

The present study was carried out to evaluate the genetic polymorphism in Ovine MTNR1A of two tropical breeds ie., highly prolific NARI Suwarna sheep and Mandya sheep from southern peninsular region of India with respect to differential fertility. Fifty animals from each breed were randomly selected and subjected to RsaI-RFLP analysis of exon-2 of Ovine MTNR1A. The study revealed monomorphic patterns in all the animals for both the breeds. PCR amplicon of 824 bp fragments with four cut sites at 53 bp, 320 bp, 343 bp and 754 bp, resulted in 411 bp, 267 bp, 70 bp, 53 bp and 23 bp. Only presence of CC genotypes at rs406779174 SNP of Ovine MTNR1A in both the breeds supports non-seasonality in breeding of these animals and no association of SNP with increased fecundity of NARI Suwarna sheep over Mandya sheep.