Genetic Association of DGAT1 and ESR1 Gene Polymorphism with Performance Traits in Murrah Buffaloes

Background: Diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) gene plays a pivotal role in milk fat synthesis whereas Estrogen receptor gene (ESR1) gene helps in regulating reproductive performance of dairy animals. The present study was designed to identify genetic association of DGAT1 and ESR1 gene with performance traits in Murrah buffaloes. Methods: Genomic DNA was isolated from 100 Murrah buffaloes maintained at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. One set of primer for each gene has been custom designed and was amplified. Result: The amplicon size of 517 bp and 514 bp was obtained for DGAT1 and ESR1 gene respectively. Upon custom sequencing, the ESR1 gene was found to be monomorphic in the studied population; whereas, in DGAT1 gene, three SNPs were detected as 290A greater than G, 306G greater than A and 317T greater than C. The genetic variant 306G greater than A among all, showed significant association with average fat% in Murrah buffaloes (p less than 0.01). The findings indicated that inclusion of association of DGAT1 gene related information could be helpful for selection of dairy buffaloes in order to improve the fat yield after validating it in a very large buffalo population.