Polymorphism CAST gene and its association with birth weight and cashmere wool traits in Kerman Raini goat

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Abstract

The objective of this research was to study polymorphism of CAST gene and its association with birth weight and cashmere traits in Kerman Raini goat. Blood samples were randomly collected from 108 Kerman Raini goats. DNA was extracted by salting out method and a fragment length of 247 bp of exon 6 of the gene using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was amplified. SSCP obtained by acrylamide gel and stained with silver nitrate. Three patterns AA, AB and AC were detected for CAST gene with frequencies of 0.426, 0.28 and 0.296, respectively. The population deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Birth weight and year of shearing had no significant effects on cashmere wool but the effect of genotype was significant on birth weight (P<0.05). The results indicated that allele C had significant effect onbirth weight so that it can be a molecular marker in marker assistance selection (MAS).

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