Genetic divergence studies on reproduction and production traits among Gir crosses.

The study was undertaken to estimate the genetic divergence among FG, IFG, FJG, IFJG, and R crosses of Gir cow on the basis of age at first conception, age at first calving, and lactation milk yield per day of lactation length using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. The genetic groups' influence was significant (P < 0.01) for all traits separately and simultaneously (V test) based on three traits. The differences in the D2 values among all the genetic groups' combinations were significant except IFG with R genetic group combination. The total D2 values for age at first conception (AFCon), age at first calving (AFC), and lactation milk yield per day of lactation length (LMY/LL) were 18.85, 0.06, and 9.01 respectively. The percent contribution of AFCon to the total D2 value was maximum as 67.51 followed by LMY/LL as 32.27 and lowest of AFC as 0.22. Among the clusters formed on the basis of D2 values, IFG, IFJG, and R formed one cluster, whereas, FG and FJG formed second cluster. The magnitude of inter-cluster distance was greater than intra-cluster distance.

Genotyping of Novel SNPs in BMPR1B, BMP15, and GDF9 Genes for Association with Prolificacy in Seven Indian Goat Breeds.

Goats form the backbone of rural livelihood and financial security systems in India but their population is showing decreasing trend. Improvement of reproductive traits such as prolificacy offers a solution to stabilize the decreasing goat population and to meet the nutritional needs of growing human population. In the present study, six novel SNPs in three candidate genes for prolificacy (BMPR1B, BMP15, and GDF9) were genotyped in seven breeds of Indian goats to evaluate their association with litter size. Tetra primer ARMS-PCR and PCR-RFLP based protocols were developed for genotyping six novel SNPs, namely, T(-242)C in BMPR1B; G735A and C808G in BMP15; and C818T, A959C, and G1189A in GDF9 gene. The effect of breed was highly significant (p ≤ 0.01) on litter size but the effect of genotype was nonsignificant. The effect of parity on litter size was also significant in the prolific Black Bengal breed. The litter size differences observed between breeds are attributed to breed differences. Novel mutations observed at different loci in GDF9, BMP15, and BMPR1B genes do not contribute to the reproductive capability of the investigated breeds. Further studies with more number of breeds and animals exploring association of these novel SNPs with reproductive traits may be fruitful.