Author(s)

Seyed Mohammad Moazeni¹, Mohammadreza Mohammadabadi², Mostafa Sadeghi³, Hosein Moradi Shahrbabak³, Ali Esmailizadeh Koshkoieh², Farhad Bordbar¹

¹MSc Student of Department of Animal Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
²Associate Professor of Department of Animal Science, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
³Assistant Professor of Department of Animal Science, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran.

The objective of this study was to estimate the allele and genotype frequencies of the UCP/Hha1 polymorphisms and to determine associations between these polymorphisms and growth traits, breeding value of growth and reproductive traits in Mazandaran Indigenous Chicken. To estimate breeding value of the reproductive traits, and phenotypic information of 18 successive generations of selection in breeding station of Mazandaran Indigenous Chicken (north of Iran), 190 birds were analyzed using a univariate animal model in ASREML procedure.. Genotyping of UCP gene polymorphism for all subjects was performed by the PCR–RFLP method. The evaluation of the association between this SNP with reproductive traits suggests a positive effect of TC genotype with age at first egg (ASM) compared with CC genotype. In addition, TC genotype was significantly associated with breeding value of age at first egg compared with CC genotype (P < 0.05). In conclusion, our results suggest that the TC genotype of the UCP gene is associated with age at sexual maturity (ASM) and breeding value of age at sexual maturity, and UCP polymorphisms may be used as DNA markers for selection in the breeding process of Mazandaran Indigenous Chicken.

Reproductive Traits, Polymorphism, Chicken, UCP, PCR-RFLP

Moazeni, S. , Mohammadabadi, M. , Sadeghi, M. , Shahrbabak, H. , Koshkoieh, A. and Bordbar, F. (2016) Association between UCP Gene Polymorphisms and Growth, Breeding Value of Growth and Reproductive Traits in Mazandaran Indigenous Chicken. Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 6, 1-8. doi: 10.4236/ojas.2016.61001.