The effect of crossbreeding on the expression of Calpastatin gene in Arabi and Arabi ×Romanov lambs using Real-Time PCR

Several cross breeding experiments have been performed in sheep. These researches have focused mainly on traits of lamb production or meat production. The aim of the present study was to compare the expression of Calpastatin gene in lambs of Arabi and its cross-breed with Romanov. For this purpose, 16 Arabi and hybrid lambs were used in a completely randomized design with 2 treatments and 8 replicates. Hybrid lambs were born from similar ewes which artificially inseminated with Romanove ram sperm by laparoscopy method after estrous synchronization. The lambs were reared after birth in the same conditions and slaughtered at the age of 6 months. Immediately after slaughter, sampling of the muscle portion of longissimus lumborum was performed from the right side of the animal. After extraction of total RNA, its quality and quantity were evaluated and used for cDNA production. Glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenase gene was used as housekeeping gene to normalize the data. Finally, expression of calpastatin gene was evaluated by Real-time qPCR. SAS and REST software were used for analysis of gene expression data. The results of this study showed that the Calpastatin gene expression was 1.3 times higher in crossbred lambs comparing to Arabi (P˂0.05). These results may confirm that cross-breeding can have a significant effect on calpastatin gene function over the pure group. Further studies should be performed to determine the role of calpastatin in muscle physiology.