Investigation of FSHR, LHβ ve GPR54 gene mutations in Chios breed sheep by PCR-RFLP method

In this study, it was aimed to determine the FSHR, LHβ and GPR54 gene mutations, which are less studied than the major genes and may have an effect on sheep litter size, by using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method in Chios sheep. In the study conducted at the Animal Science Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, a total of 60 blood samples from Chios sheep were used as research material. The target gene regions were amplified via PCR, and the PCR products were digested using specific restriction enzymes for genotyping: XmnI for FSHR, BsrBI for LHβ, and TaqI for GPR54. As a result of the analyses, the g.727C>T mutation was detected only in the LHβ gene. In terms of the LHβ gene, two alleles (C and T) and two genotypes (CC and CT) were identified in the Chios sheep. The allele frequencies were calculated as 0.81 for C and 0.19 for T, while the genotype frequencies were 0.62 for CC and 0.38 for CT. According to the chi-square test, the Chios sheep population was found to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with respect to the LHβ gene.