Segregation of the InDel Mutation in IRF2BP2 Discriminating Fleece Type in North African and Iranian Sheep Breeds

Subject Areas : Camel

F.Z. Belharfi ¹ , S. Kdidi ² , N. Tabet-Aoul ³ , A. Ameur Ameur ⁴ , A. Djaout ⁵ , M. Hammadi ⁶ , J. Sarry ⁷ , F. Woloszyn ⁸ , S. Fabre ⁹ , R. Talebi ¹⁰ , T. Khorchani ¹¹ , M.H. Yahyaoui ¹² , S.S.B. Gaouar ¹³

1 - Department of Biology, Laboratory of Applied Genetics in Agronomy, Ecology and Public health (GenApAgiE), Abou Bekr Belkaid University, Tlemcen,13000, Algeria
2 - Livestock and Wildlife Laboratory, Institut des Régions Arides, University of Gabes, Tunisia
3 - Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genetics USTO, Oran, 31.000, Algeria
4 - Department of Biology, Laboratory of Applied Genetics in Agronomy, Ecology and Public health (GenApAgiE), Abou Bekr Belkaid University, Tlemcen,13000, Algeria
5 - Department of Biology, Laboratory of Applied Genetics in Agronomy, Ecology and Public health (GenApAgiE), Abou Bekr Belkaid University, Tlemcen,13000, Algeria; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique d’Algérie (INRAA), Sétif, 19.000, Algérie; Laboratoire de Production Animale, Biotechnologie et Santé (PABIOS), Institut des Sciences Agrovétérinaires (ISAV), Université Mohammed Cherif Messaadia, Souk-Ahras, 41.000, Algérie
6 - Livestock and Wildlife Laboratory, Institut des Régions Arides, University of Gabes, Tunisia
7 - GenPhySE, Toulouse University, INRA, INPT, ENVT, Castanet-Tolosan, France
8 - GenPhySE, Toulouse University, INRA, INPT, ENVT, Castanet-Tolosan, France
9 - GenPhySE, Toulouse University, INRA, INPT, ENVT, Castanet-Tolosan, France
10 - Department of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran; Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
11 - Livestock and Wildlife Laboratory, Institut des Régions Arides, University of Gabes, Tunisia
12 - Livestock and Wildlife Laboratory, Institut des Régions Arides, University of Gabes, Tunisia
13 - Department of Biology, Laboratory of Applied Genetics in Agronomy, Ecology and Public health (GenApAgiE), Abou Bekr Belkaid University, Tlemcen,13000, Algeria

Received: 2023-11-17 Accepted : 2024-02-08 Published : 2024-06-01

Keywords: association, gene, hairy, woolly,

Abstract :

In sheep, the woolly or hairy fleece type shows variation within and between breeds and populations. Re-cently, the woolly allele was shown to result from the insertion of an antisens retrogene into the 3’UTR of the ovine IRF2BP2 gene. The purpose of this study was to examine this InDel polymorphism within the IRF2BP2 gene using a specific PCR genotyping in 17 North African (Algeria and Tunisia) and Iranian sheep breeds showing various fleece types. The genotyping of the overall animals (n=908) showed the seg-regation of the two alleles insertion (I) and deletion (D), and the three genotypes (II, ID and DD) with vari-ous frequencies. Ouled Djellal, Rembi and Tâadmit known as woolly breeds had 100%, 94% and 94% of II homozygous animals, respectively. In contrast, Ifilène and Sidaou known as hairy breeds had 100% and 99% of DD homozygous animals. Other breeds showed the segregation of the I allele with a frequency from 3% to 91%. An association analysis, carried out only for the Algerian sheep breeds, revealed that this poly-morphism was significantly associated with the fleece type trait (P<0.05). Thus, the current work meets previous results to further confirm the genetic effect of the insertion occurring into the 3′ UTR of the IRF2BP2 gene on the fleece type trait of sheep breeds.

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