Prolactin Receptor (PRLR) gene polymorphism in chios, akkaraman and awassi sheep breeds

The objective of the present study was to determine the polymorphism in prolactine receptor (PRLR) gene in Chios, Akkaraman and Awassi which are native sheep breeds in Turkey. Fifty blood samples for each of Chios, Akkaraman, and Awassi ewes, with a total of 150 samples were used. Following the DNA isolation by phenol-chloroform extraction method PRLR gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by using four primer pair. Then, a total of 200 amplicons (100 for primer A (intron 1) and 100 for primer 3 (exon 10) were subjected to DNA sequence analysis. For primer A, 6 different haplotypes were determined. The most common haplotypes were haplotype 2 for Akkaraman, and haplotype 4 for Awassi. The most common haplotype determined in Chios breed was haplotype 6. For Primer 3, 7 different haplotypes (except for reference haplotype) were obtained. The most common haplotype was haplotype 5 for Chios breed and haplotype 3 for Akkaraman and Awassi. Haplotype 4-8 were not detected in either Akkaraman and Awassi breeds. Variations determined for primer 3 which were A14T Gln --> Leu; G160A Asp -->Asn; G166A Glu-->Lys; A167T Glu-->Val; A176T His--> Leu; G206A Ser --> Asn ; G208A Gly-->Arg led to changes in amino acids, but no changes for amino acid in A2T, A81G, A138G, C186T, T207C was determined.As a result, both inbreed and interbreed variations for PRLR gene polymorphisms were found in Chios, Akkaraman, and Awassi ewes as detected by primer A and primer 3. It was particularly noted that Akkaraman and Awassi were similar to each other in terms of both primer A and primer 3 haplotypes whereas Chios breed had a different variation.