Full Length Research Paper

Genetic variation of Pit-1 gene in Chinese indigenous and Western goose populations

Jin-hua Cheng^1,3*, Na Qiao¹, Wen-ming Zhao¹, Qi Xu¹, Hai-bo Zhang¹, Xiu-jun Duan¹, Wen-lin Ji² and Guo-hong Chen¹

¹College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, China.

²National Water Fowl Species Gene Pool, Jiangsu Polytechnic College of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, China.

³Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Science, Nanjing, China.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ghchen@yzu.edu.cn. Tel: 86-514-87979230.

Fax: 86-514-87350440.

Accepted 27 March, 2009

Pituitary-specific transcription factor (Pit-1, or GHF1, or POU1F1) is expressed in the pituitary gland; it regulates pituitary development and expression of the growth hormone, prolactin and thyrotropin β-submit genes. Pit-1 gene has been regarded as a candidate gene for production performance. The genetic variation of Pit-1 gene was investigated in five Chinese indigenous goose populations and one Western goose population by PCR-SSCP. In this study, the sequences of goose Pit-1 gene were identified with duck sequence; three SNPs detected were A57G in the intron, G161A and T282G were in the exon, and T282G changed the amino acid from Cys to Trp. A57G and G161A appeared only in the Western population Landoise goose. The genotypes distribution showed significant differences between different types of population.

Key words: Goose, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), pituitary-specific transcription factor gene (Pit-1).