Investigation of SNPs in BMP15 and GDF9 genes in "cepni" and "Of" sheep in the Black Sea region of Turkey

Abstract

Sheep fertility genes have been studied in Turkey for many years. But so far it cannot be said that a satisfactory result has been achieved in terms of the number of detected polymorphisms on fertility genes. Exhibiting the genetic structure of local gene resources adapted to a particular region is very important for sustainability, conservation and breeding studies, and many other issues such as profitability. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to investigate the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the BMP15 and GDF9 genes in two new Turkish sheep breeds, cepni and Of. DNA sequencing was performed to identify SNPs in both genes of cepni and Of sheep. One novel SNP (T755C) in the BMP15 gene and five known SNPs (c471C > T (G2), c477 G > A (G3), c721 G > A (G4), c978 A > G (G5), and c994 G > A (G6)) in the GDF9 gene, and a total of six SNPs were identified. cepni and Of breeds showed a highly polymorphic structure for the genes examined. This finding shows that these two sheep breeds have great potential for future association studies. As a conclusion, the findings of this study were the first for the cepni and Of breeds, and it should be examined for novel and other SNPs for more convincing results, especially litter size association studies, in new and other native sheep breeds in Turkey.