Association of growth hormone gene polymorphism with quantitative characteristics of thin-tailed sheep using PCR-RFLP in Jambi province

The objective of this research was to obtain quantitative growth hormone gene polymorphism association between growth hormone gene genotype with quantitative characteristics of the thin-tail sheep in the highlands and lowlands of Jambi Province. Two phases of research were done on the field and in the laboratory. Field research which was conducted to obtain the quantitative characteristics data includes; withers height (WH), body length (BL), chest grid (ChG), chest depth (ChD), chest width (ChW), body weight (BW) and body weight gain (BWG). Laboratory research included: DNA isolation, amplification and gel purification, characterization and identification using PCR-RFLP with the MspI, and AluI. Quantitative characteristics data was collected from 240 heads of thin-tailed sheep. Blood samples were collected from 160 of them and all were between the ages of 1 and 2 years (I1 = pair of permanent teeth). Field research was conducted in the Kerinci District and Sungai Penuh City (Highlands) and Muara Jambi Districts and Batanghari Districts (lowlands). The purposive sampling technique used in this research revealed that: 1) quantitative characteristics (BW, BWG, BL, ChG, ChD, and ChW) of thin-tailed sheep both male and female in highland were better than in the lowlands; 2) studied locus was polymorphic on the highlands and lowlands; 3) the highest of genotype and allele frequencies of both highlands and lowlands were related to the genotype (+/+) and allele (+), respectively; 4) the highest quantitative characteristic (BW BW, BWG, BL, ChG, ChD, and ChW) of thin-tailed sheep was genotype (+/+); and 5) the diversity of GH genes MspI and AluI were associated with BW, BWG, BL, ChG, ChD, and ChW of thin-tailed sheep both on the highlands and lowlands of Jambi Province.   Key words: Characterization, local sheep, thin-tailed sheep, diversity, growth hormone (GH) gene, lowlands, highlands, PCR-RFLP.