Identifying novel SNPs and allelic sequences of the stearoyl-CoA desaturase gene (SCD) in fat-tailed and thin-tailed sheep breeds

摘要

Stearoyl-coenzyme A-desaturase (SCD) is a candidate gene for genetic variation in the fatty acid composition of meat and milk. The SCD enzyme catalyzes a A9-cis desaturation of a number of fatty acyl-CoA substrates with a preference for C 16:0 and C18:0, which are converted to C16:l and C18:l, respectively (Enoch et al. 1976). SCD is also a key enzyme in endogenous production of the cis-9, trans- isomer of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (Bauman et al. 1999). In sheep, two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), located in intron 4 (Miari et al. 2009) and intron 2 (Garcia-Fernandez et al. 2010), displayed significant association with CLA/VA variability and milk fat percentage, respectively. The objective of this study was to determine the existence of polymorphisms in the SCD gene in 458 lambs belonging to three traditional fat-tailed, medium fat-tailed, and thin-tailed Iranian sheep breeds.