Cobra Moradian, Nooshin Mohamadi, Seyed Alireza Razavi-Sheshdeh, Abbas Hajihosseinlo and Fereshteh Ashrafi
To explore the relevance between sheep Growth hormone(GH)gene polymorphism and growth traits ,so as to improve the overall growth rate and economic benefits. Growth hormone (GH) a single polypeptide hormone produced in the anterior pituitary gland is a promising candidate gene marker for improving milk and meat production in farm animals. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood samples collected from 100 sheep. A 200bp GH exon 4segment was amplified by standard PCR, using the locus specific primers. PCR products were subjected to SSCP denaturation and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. SSCP bands were visualized with silver staining. Five SSCP patterns, representing five different genotypes, were identified. The evaluation of an association effect between these SSCP patterns with birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), six month weight (SW), nine month weight (9W), W12(yearling weight)suggest a positive effect of pattern G2 with weaning weight (WW), six month weight (SW), nine month weight (9W)and additive estimated breeding value for the weaning weight (WW), six month weight (SW). This result may be related to the GH large role in post weaning weight.