Polymorphism of the Kap 1.1, Kap 1.3 and K33 Genes in Chios, Kivircik and Awassi

Abstract

Keratin-associated proteins are major structural components of hair and wool fibres. They also play an important role in determining the properties of the fibre. This study is designed to examine variation in the genes encoding key keratin and keratin -associated proteins in Chios, Kivircik and Awassi sheep. Variation at these loci has the potential to be developed as genetic markers deal with wool traits. Blood samples were taken into 2 ml sterilized tubes with EDTA from vena jugularis for having genomic DNA samples. Genomic DNA isolation was obtained by standard salting out method. Regions were amplified for the determination of KAP 1.1, KAP 1.3 and K33 polymorphisms in DNA samples by using PCR. Gene polymorphisms and chi-square test were used to determine whether the populations are in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium using by POPGENE32 software. Results of the sequence analysis of the regions were evaluated by using MEGA 5. The results have shown a possibility to improve the quality of the wool traits on those local species by doing selection trials targeting on those mentioned genes.