Population genetic structure and influence of MSTN gene polymorphism on economic and biological characteristics of rabbits

Genetic structure of a population of New Zealand White rabbits was studied using myostatin C34T gene polymorphism. Following allele frequencies of this gene were determined: C - 0.530 and T - 0.470. Using the linear mixed model we found a connection between rabbit genotype (a polymorphic variant of myostatin gene) and economically important traits such as average daily gain and differential adaptability to coccidiosis. Our data demonstrate that genotype, gender and season of birth had a statistically significant influence on the average daily weight gain (25 %, 6 %, and 7 %, respectively) but not on the carcass weight. It was found that heterozygous CT animals had a higher daily average gain than CC by 2.3 % and than TT homozygotes by 2,6 %. Analysis of genotype distribution in the second phenotypic trait, carcass weight, revealed that animals with the CT genotype had index higher by 35.3 than the average of the herd. We suggest that molecular genetic analysis of rabbits would make it possible to select «desirable» allelic variants of the myostatin gene in the early stages of postnatal ontogenesis. This in turn would allow to complete the herd of the best animals to improve the economic and biological indicators in modern rabbit breeding industry.

rabbits, DNA polymorphism, myostatin, economically valuable signs