Authors : K.A. Bindu, B. Chandramohan and Siby Antony
Abstract: Three exonic regions of MSTN gene was resequenced in hundred rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) of five different breeds viz.,White Giant, Grey Giant, Soviet Chinchilla, New Zealand White and Angora) to make comparative study. The comparison of three MSTN exonic region of these animals revealed in total four polymorphisms of which three were located in the exon I (g.108T>C, g.111C>G, g.247C>A) and one was located in exon II (g.711T>A), respectively. Among those identified polymorphisms only g.247C>A observed to be missense mutation which changes p.K83Q (Lysine to Glutamate) at the amino acid level. The mutation at the position g.247C>A was further analysed with PANTHER, cSNP and SNAP tool and considered for correlation with the production traits. In the analysis 92% of the White Giant rabbits were heterozygous for the identified mutation (g.247C>A), rest 8% of White Giant and all other breeds under study showed g.247A>A genotype. The phenotypic analysis inferred that White Giant had better performance (body weight) than the other breeds, i.e., Grey Giant, Soviet Chinchilla, New Zealand White and Angora.
K.A. Bindu, B. Chandramohan and Siby Antony, 2015. Characterization of Myostatin (MSTN) Gene in Rabbit. Journal of Molecular Genetics, 7: 1-4.