Genetic diversity of interon 4 of growth hormone gene in West Azerbaijan native chicken using PCR-RFLP technique

In the present study blood samples were collected from 90 birds in order to investigate the genetic variation of interon 4 of chicken growth hormone gene (cGH) in West Azeraijan native chicken. Genomic DNA was extracted and a fragment of 1170 bp in size was amplified using polymerase chain reaction. The amplified fragments were subjected to restriction digestion with MspI endonuclease enzyme and the resultant digested products were run on 2% agarose gel. The results revealed the existence of three alleles A, B and C for the examined locus with frequencies of 34.44%, 32.22% and 33.33% respectively. A number of six different genotypic variants including AA, AB, BB, AC, BC and CC were identified withgenotypic frequencies of 11.11%, 23.33%, 12.22%, 23.33%, 16.66% and 13.13% respectively. The expected hetrozygosity value and effective number of alleles were 0.66 and 2.99 respectively. G square and Chi square tests based on observed and expected frequenciesof different genotypic variants of cGH gene showed that deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was not significant for West Azerbaijan native chicken. It was concluded that the genotypes of the examined locus were not affected by genotype influencing factors such as selection, migration and mutation.