Genetic aspects of the reproductive ability of doe rabbits: the role of polymorphism in growth hormone gene

The aim of the study was to analyze the parameters of the reproductive ability of Chinchilla doe rabbits with different genotypes by locus GH (mutation c.-78C>T). Methods. The genotypes of animals were determined by PCR-RFLP. The amplification was conducted in the programmed thermocycler Applied Biosystems MiniAmp (Thermo Scientific, the USA) using specific primers. The amplicons were cleaved with the endonuclease BstUI (Thermo Scientific, the USA), and the fragments were separated in 2% agarose gel supplemented with ethidium bromide. The following indices were used to evaluate the reproductive ability of doe rabbits: milk production (kg), number of litter kits, birth and weaning weight of litter (kg), and average daily gain of infant rabbits (g). The population and genetic indices were assessed using common methods. The impact of the genotype of GH locus on the parameters of the reproductive function of doe rabbits with different genotypes by locus GH was analyzed using ANOVA. Results. The investigated sampling of Chinchilla doe rabbits (34 animals) was found to have BstUI-polymorphism in position -78 of the start codon of exon I of gene GH (c.-78C>T). The analysis of associations demonstrated that the doe rabbits with the heterozygous genotype CT in locus GH had higher indices of milk production, number of litter kits and live weight of the litter, average daily gain, and live weight of one animal at the age of 35 days. Statistically significant differences were found between genotypes CT and TT in terms of milk production (p<0.001) and live birth and weaning weight of the litter (p<0.05). Conclusions. The results obtained demonstrated the promising perspectives of the use of BstUI-polymorphism of locus GH (c.-78C>T) as a genetic marker in the breeding programs, aimed at enhancing the fecundity of rabbits.