The incidence of mutation in three loci of GDF9, BMP15 and BMP15-1B and their effects on litter sizes was evaluated in Baluchi sheep. Wild-type alleles were detected for BMP15 and BMP15-1B loci and all individuals were found to be as non-carriers for FecB and FecX G mutations but, a G to A nucleotide substitution was found in GDF9 locus. The frequency of FecG + (0.82) wild type allele was higher than the frequency of FecG 1 (0.18) mutant allele and the frequencies of FecG + /FecG + , FecG + /FecG 1 and FecG 1 /FecG 1 genotypes were 0.72, 0.20 and 0.08, respectively in GDF9 locus. The heterozygous (FecG + /FecG 1 ) and homozygous (FecG + /FecG + ) non-carrier ewes had 0.35 and 0.21 more lambs than the homozygous (FecG 1 /FecG 1 ) carrier ewes, respectively (p<0.05). In addition to the finding of segregation of non-additive gene effect on litter size in the previous study in Baluchi sheep, these findings for the first time shows that the FecG 1 gene has a major effect on litter size in this breed.

New molecular techniques focused on genome analysis, open new possibilities for more accurate evaluation of economiclly important traits in farm animals. Milk production traits are typical quantitative characteristics controlled by a number of genes. Mutations in their sequences may alter animal performance as well as their breeding values. In this study, we investigated the effect of Kpn2I restriction fragment length polymorphisms in the leptin gene, on bull breeding values for milk yield, fat, and protein yield, and their percentage. In order to test for an association between the leptin single-nucleotide polymorphism in exon 2 and milk productivity, we genotyped 134 Iranian Holstein bulls. Breeding values for milk-related traits (milk yield, fat, and protein yield and percentage) were estimated using the BLUP based on an animal model. The effect of the genotypes of Kpn2I polymorphism on the breeding values for milk-related traits was examined using least square methods. The T allele frequency was 0.425. Genotypes were distributed according to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Bulls with TT genotype had higher milk, fat and protein yield compared with TC and CC bulls (P , 0.05). Bulls with CC genotype had higher protein percentage compared with TT and TC bulls (P , 0.05). The association between leptin polymorphism with milk production traits suggests that this marker may be useful for selection based on molecular information.

Three new racemic vesamicol analogs were successfully prepared in good yields and high purity. All compounds were characterized by both IR and NMR spectroscopy. Compounds ( ±) -5 and ( ±) -6 showed a moderate lipophilicity compared with reference compounds IBVM and DRC140, respectively. However, the lipophilicity of DRC140 and ( ±) -9 showed very similar behaviors.

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Genetic profiles of Iranian Holstein young bulls at the national artificial insemination station were determined on the basis of individual genotypes at 13 ISAG's recommended microsatellites, the most useful markers of choice for parentage identification.In the present study a total of 119 individuals were genotyped at 13 microsatellite loci and for possible parent-offspring combinations. A high level of genetic variation was evident within the investigated individuals as assessed from various genetic diversity measures. The mean number of observed alleles per microsatellite marker was 9.15 and the number of effective alleles as usual was less than the observed values (4.03). The average observed and expected heterozygosity values were 0.612 and 0.898, respectively. The mean polymorphic information content (PIC) value (0.694) further reflected a high level of genetic variability. The average exclusion of probability (PE) of the 13 markers was 0.520, ranging from 0.389 to 0.788. The combined exclusion of probability was 0.999, when 13 microsatellite loci were used for analysis in the individual identification system. Inbreeding was calculated as the difference between observed and expected heterozygosity. Observed homozygosity was less than expected which reflects inbreeding of -3.7% indicating that there are genetic differences between bull-sires and bull-dams used to produce young bulls. The results obtained from this study demonstrate that the microsatellite DNA markers used in the present DNA typing are useful and sufficient for individual identification and parentage verification without accurate pedigree information.

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Beta-Lacto globulin (BLG) is a major protein in the milk of ruminants. Bovine BLG gene is located on the chromosome 11q28 and has two common genetic variants, ‘A’ and ‘B’ (Gene-Bank X14710). These variants are different in amino acids at positions 64 and 118, where allele ‘A’ has Asp and Val and allele ‘B’ has Gly and Ala, respectively. Difference at position 118 can be detected by PCR-RFLP (Medrano and Agiular-Cordova 1990). It is reported that allele ‘A’ is associated with milk production (Strzalkowska et al. 2002) and allele ‘B’ has a positive effect on fat percentage (Tsiaras et al. 2005). The aim of our study was to estimate the allelic frequency in polymorphic site of exon IV (allele ‘A’ or HaeIII (-)) of BLG gene in Holstein dairy cattle of Iran and also to find any association of total milk production (first lactation) with BLG genotypes.