Identification of fecundity gene in Egyptian goats using genetic markers [electronic resource]: I. biochemical polymorphic markers.

Includes references.

Blood samples were collected from 63 females, taken from three Egyptian goat breeds, by vacutainer glass tubes which contain disodium EDTA (EDTANa2) as anticoagulant reagent. Twentytwo does from the Barki breed, 21 from the Baladi breed and 13 and 7 prolific and non-prolific does, respectively from the Zaraibi breed, were chosen according to the litter size trait. Blood serum was then obtained by centrifugation and treated by two biochemical fingerprints techniques; SDSProtein PAGE and Isozymes, to characterize the three goat breeds and to find genetic markers which can differentiate between them. The protein electrophoresis (SDSProtein PAGE) in the present work indicated that each goat population had a unique protein banding pattern. The Barki population has the highest value of similarity (0.69) followed by the Baladi one (0.65), while the Zaraibi population showed the lowest value (0.55). However, the average of similarity within both the prolific (ZH) and non-prolific (ZL) Zaraibi groups was high (0.86 and 0.76, respectively). The two Zaraibi goat groups shared two common bands at molecular weight of 92 kDa and 29 kDa, so these two bands could be used as specific protein markers to characterize this breed. For the Zaraibi breed, 6 protein markers were detected as specific ones for ZH females (at molecular weights of 28, 31, 43, 53, 67 and 179 kDa) and 7 protein markers were also detected as specific ones for ZL females (at molecular weights of 51, 69, 131, 138, 185, 203 and 207 kDa). So, the ZH specific protein markers could be considered as important markers to characterize the prolific females within this breed. The Baladi individuals had eight common protein markers (at molecular weights of 28, 29, 31, 56, 119, 146, 198 and 206 kDa), while the Barki ones showed only one common protein marker at molecular weight of 55 kDa. So, these specific protein markers could be considered as important markers to characterize these two breeds. A total of 4 and 5 bands, 3 and 3 bands and 3 and 3 bands were detected for Esterase (Est.) and Malate dehydrogenase (Mdh), respectively in Zaraibi, Baladi and Barki goats, respectively. The analysis of the two isozyme systems used in the present work showed that there are individual variations within each of the three goat populations; the greatest in the Zaraibi breed and the lowest in the Barki breed.

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