RESEARCH OF CALPASTATIN GENE POLYMORPHISM IN MEAT-WOOL SHEEP
In breeding programs of a number of countries with developed animal husbandry, technologies involving the use of DNA markers to increase the productivity and economic profitability of sheep breeding are of significant interest. The study of the polymorphism of potential genes of economically useful traits of sheep in the future will improve the accuracy of assessing and predicting the productive qualities of animals. Alleles of the calpastatin gene (CAST) are considered as potential markers of sheep meat productivity. The aim of this work was to study the polymorphism of the CAST gene in meat and wool sheep of the ½ poll dorset ½ North Caucasian meat and wool genotype bred in the Stavropol Territory. Analysis of the calpastatin gene polymorphism was performed by PCR-RFLP. CAST gene polymorphism is represented by two alleles - M and N, with a high (0.94) frequency of occurrence of the M allele and a low (0.06) allele N. In the study of CAST gene polymorphism, the genotypes MM and MN were found, the frequency of which was 87, 9 and 12.1%. The absence of the NN genotype in animals of this population revealed. The results obtained during the research indicate the establishment of a diversity of allelic variants of the CAST gene in meat and wool sheep