Association of the single nucleotide polymorphism in CAPN3 gene with growth performance in Merino and Garut (MEGA) backcross sheep

BACKGROUND: Sheep is one of the commodities of livestock which has been known widely in Indonesia for supporting the national food security. Improvement in genetic quality by selection based on genetic markers for growth is necessary to increase meat production. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis in sheep suggests that Calpain 3 gene (CAPN3) gene might be one of the candidate loci affecting growth traits. CAPN3 is located on chromosome 7 sheep expressed in the skeletal muscles. The aim of this study was to investigate polymorphism CAPN3 intron 11 in Merino × Garut (MEGA) backcross using the PCR-RLFP method and to determine their association with growth traits. RESULTS: SNP intron 11 CAPN3 | BseSI of Merino × Garut (MEGA) backcross sheep was polymorphic and resulted in two alleles of C and T with a frequency of 0.76 and 0.24, respectively, and CC, CT, and TT genotypes with a frequency of 0.54, 0.43, and 0.02, respectively. These loci were found to be in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. The SNP CAPN3 | BseSI significantly affected (P < 0.05) the birth weight in Merino × Garut (MEGA) backcross sheep. CONCLUSION: This result suggests that the CAPN3 | BseSI can be used as a genetic marker for birth weight trait in sheep.