Relationship of DIO2 Gene with Productive Traits in Awassi Sheep in Thi-Qar Governorate

Abstract

Abstract The research included 59 animals from the local Awassi sheep at the Sheep and Goats Research Station, in Al-Shatrah district, north of Thi Qar Governorate, Thi Qar Agriculture Directorate, from 20/10/2022 to 10/2/2023, to study the effect of the genotypes of the G>C.164 mutation on body dimensions and wool characteristics in local Awassi sheep. The study included measuring the characteristics of body dimensions (body length, front height, rear height, breast circumference and breast width), wool characteristics (staple length, fiber length and fiber diameter), by studying the nucleotide sequence (Sequencing) on the target genetic segment. The size of 350 base pairs was found to be located in exon 2 of the DIO2 gene in the local Awassi sheep sample. The presence of the C>G mutation at site 164, which is a missense mutation that changes the amino acid Proline (P) to Alanine (A), by calculating the allelic frequency, it was found that the C allele was significantly superior to the G allele in the G>C. 164 mutation, two genotypes (CC and CG) were found to have a significant correlation with most of the studied traits, except for fiber diameter. The highly significant superiority of the hybrid genotype CG in the G>C.164 mutant was observed in body length, front and hind height, breast circumference and breast width compared to the wild CC genotype. The wild genotype CC was significantly superior in staple length and fiber length in the same mutant.