Association of Chicken PMEL17 Gene Polymorphism with Coat Colour Trait in Iraqinative Chicken

Abstract

PMEL17 gene encodes a transmembrane protein called pre-melanosomal protein 17 or PMEL17. PMEL17 is responsible for the production of eumelanin and is present in the melanosome. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity of the partial coding regions of the PMEL17 gene and its association with coat colour in Iraqinative chicken.Furthermore, the possible impact of amino acid substitutions on effected the mutations in physicochemical properties and structure of the PMEL17 protein was investigated. Blood samples from 95 Iraqinative chickens were collected to extract DNA and the 594-bp fragment of the PMEL17 gene was amplified and then DNA sequencing method was adopted for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) discovering and genotyping. Sequence analysis showed that a 9 bp deletion polymorphism (GGTGCCCAG/-) at chicken PMEL17 gene. The allele frequency of this mutation is 0.84 and 0.16 for the wild allele and the mutant allele, respectively.This mutation created an early codon stop in the PMEL17 protein. The isoelectric point, net charge and hydrophobic index have significant changes by this deletion polymorphism.The association analysis showed that no significant differences between different genotypes and coat colour (p> 0.05).

Key words: PMEL17 gene, Chicken, DNA sequencing, Deletion, Protein physicochemical.