Abstract

Very low density apolipoprotein-II (apoVLDL-II) is a major polypeptide component of avian VLDL. The function of apoVLDL-II is the transport of neutral lipids (triacylglycerol) in the form of VLDL in the plasma. The apoVLDLII gene is dormant in embryos, chicks and roosters but can be activated by estrogen. The current study was designed to investigate the association of an apoVLDL-II gene polymorphism on chicken growth and body composition traits. Genomic DNAs were extracted from 400 chickens from four different commercial broiler lines. Genotyping for the apoVLDL-II gene by using PCR-RFLP method and SfcIrestriction endonuclease showed a mutation in 492-bp fragment located on the first intron. Polymorphism in apoVLDL-II gene was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with body weight at 6 week (BW6), carcass weight (CW), breast muscle weight (BMW), drumstick weight (DW) and wing weight (WINW). No significant difference was observed in the back weight (BAKW) and abdominal fat weight (AFW). This research suggests that apoVLDL-II gene could be a candidate gene that can affect some growth traits in chickens.

Key words: Broiler lines, growth traits, apoVLDL-II gene, association, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).

Abbreviation

VLDL, very low density protein; apoVLDL-II, very low density apolipoprotein-II; PCR-RFLP, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism; BW6, body weight at 6 week; CW, carcass weight; BMW, breast muscle weight; DW, drumstick weight; WINW, wing weight; BAKW, back weight;AFW, abdominal fat weight; MAS, Marker-assisted selection; QTL, quantitative trait locus; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism.