Delineating marker genotypes for higher reproduction performance to aid in selection of Murrah bulls

Unraveling the genetic variability of performance traits is the key basis of selection in farm animals. Murrah is a predominant milch breed of India, efforts were being made in the past to select them for higher production, which is negatively related with the fertility. Keeping this fact in mind and to select the animals having optimum production and fertility performance, present study was conducted to validate suitable markers and the association of their allelic variation with the fertility traits in Murrah buffaloes. Study was conducted on 280 Murrah buffaloes to explore SNPs in SPEF2 gene and their association with sire conception rate (SCR), conception rate (CR) and weight at birth of Murrah bulls. Results revealed that SNP C168T of SPEF2 gene with genotype CC was found to have non-significant but higher CR and SCR in comparison to CT and TT genotype. Although no significant association of the identified SNPs could be established with bull fertility traits, a further study with a large number of samples could make the differences due to genotypes a significant effect and can be used as an aid for early selection of high fertile Murrah bulls