Sequence variation of MC1R gene in Iraqi native Ducks and its association with feathers colour trait

Abstract

The MC1R gene is one of the genes responsible for the pigmentation of feathers in birds by controlling the production of eumelanin and pheomelanin. In this study, blood samples were taken from 50 birds from local Iraqi ducks in order to extract part of the sequence of the MC1R gene and to know the number of SNP when aligning the sequence with GenBank : LC480444.1 nucleotide sequence, and it was found through this study that there are three SNP, which were all non-synonymous (G>A 461 , A>C659 , A>G749), which resulted in an amino acid change where the amino acid valine was replaced to methionine and methionine to leucine and threonine to alanine. Although there were three SNP, two of them did not change the function of the protein because the amino acids resulting from the exchange of nucleotides (G>A 461 , A>C659) were also non-polar (neutral) and hydrophobic, while A>G749 the polar amino acid was replaced Neutral hydrophilic to non-polar neutral hydrophobic, so we may notice a change in the shape of the protein as a result of the change of nucleotides (A>G749) and thus a change may occur in the function of the protein , Therefore, it is possible to rely on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of the (MC1R) gene as genetic markers in distinguishing local Iraqi ducks from other breeds.