ASSOCIATION OF SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM IN LEP, SCD, FABP4 GENES WITH LIVE WEIGHT IN BEEF CATTLE OF THE KALMYK BREED

Abstract

The acceleration of the selection process in the last decade goes along with
the development of genetics at the molecular level, the identification and study of genes,
which are associated with the development of the organism and economically important traits
of animal productivity. Therefore, the main purpose of the research was to study single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the genes of leptin (LEP), stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) and
the gene, which is responsible for the regulation of intracellular fatty acid-binding protein
(FABP4), as well as to determine associations with live weight in beef cattle of the Kalmyk
breed. Molecular genetic studies of the LEP gene region made it possible to identify three
single-nucleotide polymorphisms in its structure in Kalmyk cattle: c.73T>C, c.196-121C>T,
g.92436333G>A. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms c.220A >G, c.328G >A, c.408A >G,
c.388G >C were identified in the FABP4 gene, and one SNP – T878C was identified in the
SCD gene. An association of genotypes of detected polymorphisms in the LEP, SCD and
FABP4 genes with live weight at the age of 8 months in the studied population of beef cattle
was identified. Thus, it was found that animal individuals of CC, CT and AG, GG genotypes
of c.73T>C and g.92436333G>A polymorphisms of the LEP gene exceeded animals of TT
and AA genotypes in live weight by 9,5, 7,3, 13,0 and 11,7%, respectively. It was found out
that animals, which carried the T allele in a homozygous and heterozygous state in the T878C
polymorphism of the SCD gene, differed in greater live weight than young animals of the CC
genotype by 17,7 and 20,1%. Animals, which carried the homozygous AA genotype of single
nucleotide polymorphism c.408A>G in the FABP4 gene, had the greatest live weight among
all studied animals for this gene. The conducted studies made it possible to obtain new information about the presence of associations of genotypes of single nucleotide polymorphisms in
the LEP, SCD and FABP4 genes with growth characteristics in the population of Kalmyk beef
cattle.