Genetic Variability Analysis of Early Growth Response 2 (EGR2) Gene in Native Goat Breeds of Kerala

Background: India is fortunate to have a vast livestock resource with the availability of 28 well defined goat breeds. Kerala is the home for two breeds of goats namely Malabari and Attapady Black. Due to high prolificacy and income through lower input goat rearing had attracted numerous farmers. Selection with the aid of molecular markers associated with production traits plays an essential role in goat breeding programmes. The EGR2 gene is a part of multigene family which encodes Cys2His2 type zinc-finger proteins which is responsible for DNA binding. This gene has a major role in cellular prolification, reproduction, proper growth and development ovarian follicles. Thus present study was conducted with an objective to detect single nucleotide variations of Early Growth Response 2 gene in native goat breeds of Kerala.Methods: This research was conducted in 153 Malabari goats and 129 Attappady Black goats from six centers viz., University Goat and Sheep farm Mannuthy and 5 field centers of ICAR- All India Coordinated Research Project on Goat Improvement. Genomic DNA was isolated and PCR was performed to amplify Exon 1, Exon 2 and 5 fragments of Exon 3 regions of Early Growth Response 2 gene. Single stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) technique was performed to detect Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs).Result: The SSCP revealed similar banding patterns and sequencing did not indicate any nucleotide variations in all the exons screened suggesting that EGR2 gene is highly conserved in native goat breeds of Kerala. This is the first study conducted to characterize EGR2 gene in goats making the current study a novel one.