Growth hormone gene in llama (Lama glama): characterisation and SNPs identification

M.S. DAVERIO; F DI ROCCO; L VIDAL RIOJA

Fibre production in South American camelids and other fibre animals

Wageningen Academic Publishers

Año: 2011; p. 135 - 139

The South American Camelids are source of meat, fiber, leather, transport and other products useful for the economy of Argentine northwest populations. Breeding and explotation of the llama and alpaca has experimented a notable increased and with it the interest to improve the performance of these taxa. The Growth Hormone (GH), a peptide hormone synthesized and secreted by the pituitary gland affects a variety of physiological parameters such as growth performance, milk production and carcass composition. In this study, we characterized the GH gene of llamas from Argentina and identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Like in other mammals, llama GH gene comprises five exons and four introns. Comparison with the coding sequences of the camel, whale, dolphin, pig, cow and sheep showed 99,1%, 96,5%, 96.2%, 94,8%, 90.6% and 90,3% similarity, respectively. Introns were less conserved, particularly intron C which in llama was considerably shorter than in the other compared species.Sequencing of GH gene in a sample of 20 llamas allowed to identified 8 SNP, mainly located in introns. Nevertheless, one of them was found in the 3´region.We conclude that the polymorphisms such as the ones presented here could be used for developing genetic markers to assay the effect of different genotypes on economically important traits.