SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM IN THE CODING REGION OF MYF5 GENE OF THE CAMEL (CAMELUS DROMEDARIUS)

M. G. SHAH, A. S. QURESHI¹, M. REISSMANN² AND H. J. SCHWARTZ³

Department of Anatomy and Histology, Sindh Agriculture University, TandoJam;¹Department of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan;²Institute of Animal Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany;³Department of Livestock Ecology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Abstract

    The myogenic factors (MYF) 5 and 6 are integral to the initiation and development of skeletal muscles and to the maintenance of their phenotypes. Thus, they are candidate genes for growth and meat quality-related traits. The MYF5 gene is expressed during proliferation of myoblasts and comprises 3 exons: 500, 76 and 191 bp long. Genomic DNA was isolated from the camel hair using NucleoSpin Tissue kit. Two animals of each of the six breeds namely, Marecha, Dhatti, Larri, Kohi, Sakrai and Cambelpuri were used for sequencing. For PCR amplification of the gene, a primer pair was designed from homolog regions of already published sequences of farm animals from GenBank. Results showed that exon 1 comprising of 422 bp of the dromedary MYF5 gene was more homologous (94%) to the cattle than the dog and human. However, phylogram showed that a small number of mutations had been experienced by dromedary camels at their MYF5 gene and was more near to human than other farm animals.

Key words: MYF5 gene, sequencing, camel.