Short Communication

The diversity of leptin gene in Iranian native, Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle

Mohammad Reza Nassiry¹*, Frydoun Eftekhari Shahroudi¹, Alireza Heravi Mousavi¹, Balal Sadeghi¹, Ali Javadmanesh¹

¹Department of Animal Science, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: nassiryr@um.ac.ir. Tel: +98 511 8795618, Fax: +98 511 8787430.

Accepted 16 February, 2008

This study describes genetic variability in the leptin in Iranian native, Brown Swiss and Holstein cattle (Bos Indicus and Bos Taurus). This is the first study of genetic polymorphism of the leptin gene in Iranian native cattle. We examined exon 2 of the leptin gene from 587 individuals in six different populations of Iranian native cattles (86 Sarabi, 66 Taleshi, 94 Sistani, 76 Golpayegani, 104 Brown Swiss and 161 Holstein cattle) using PCR-RFLP method. Analysis of the frequencies of the various alleles in each breed indicated that allele C in Sarabi, Taleshi, Sistani, Golpayegani, Brown Swiss and Holstein cattle with 68, 55, 69, 71, 55 and 57% value were the most frequent alleles. Observed heterozygosities were highest in Golpayegani (57.89%). These new data suggest that allele frequencies of leptin differ between the various Iranian cattle breeds.

Key words: Leptin, PCR-RFLP, Iranian native cattle.