Obese gene polymorphism and it’s influence on the viability of born piglets

Abstract

Aim. The aim of present study was to identify polymorphism in the Obese gene of 115 crossbred sows and determine influence on born piglets viability. In pigs, the Obese gene (or leptin gene) is considered to be an eligible gene to follow traits of economic importance, such as pig fat thickness, growth, and reproduction (Lagonigro et al., 2003). But the contribution of individual genes for such reproductive trait number as dead piglets is still unknown. Methods. Blood samples were collected from jugular vein. DNA was extracted by chloroform / phenol method. Genotyping Obese of gene was perfomed by polymerase chain reaction – restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR/RFLP) method (Stratil et al., 1997). PCR amplicon was digested with 2 U HinfI restriction enzyme, genotyping on a 3.5% agarose gel and stained with ethidium bromide. Two alleles of Obese gene were identified: T contained one 152 bp fragment, C had two fragments (84 and 68 bp). Results. The genotype frequencies observed were 65.5% TT genotype, 29.5% TC genotype and 5% of sows had CC genotype. The C allele was with frequency 0.2, T allele with frequency 0.8 in the studied population of sows. The same allele frequencies have been found by other researchers (Szydlowski et al., 2004; Silveira et al., 2008). TT genotype sows had on average 9,255 alive piglets, respectively TC genotype sows had 9,776, CC genotype 10,433. CC genotype pigs had 0,265 dead piglets less than TC genotype sows and 0,241 piglet less than TT genotype sows. The results primarily show the influence of Obese gene on reproduction properties of sows – the number of piglets born dead and alive – which is very important in pig reproduction. For giving recommendations to farmers for use of Obese gene test as important marker for reproduction traits the number of tested pigs as well as breed influence should be increased.