Study On The Molecular Markers For Plumage Color Trait In Mule Duck And Their Mother Duck

Plumage color is an important economic trait of mule duck. The improvement of the plumage color trait is important for the water fowl breeding. Melanocortin Receptor l (MC1R) Gene is one of the candidate genes for plumage color in animal. PCR-SSCP method was used to analyze the MC1R gene Polymorphisms for black-plumage mule duck,white-plumage mule duck,Putian black duck and Minnong white duck.Based on the detection of Polymorphisms,the effect of different genotypes between breeds and plumage color traits were analyzed.Then, to analyze relationship between AFLP marker and plumage trait in mule duck.It was a foundation that AFLP markers on DNA pools of black-plumage mule duck,white-plumage mule duck,Putian black duck and Minnong white duck were entirely screened with 64 sets of primers and the 3 specific bands,which were H1,H2 and H3,were obtained.A1l individuals of the 4 populations were detected to further validate that the 3 AFLP markers would be particular or related to the white plumage trait of mule duck by means of AFLP technique,respectively. We can draw some conclusion as follow:Experiment 1,five single point mutations( A→G,G→A,A→G,G→A and A→G at base position141,162,331,364 and 399,respectively )were found in partly coding sequence of MC1R gene in mule duck of this study.Chi-Square test showed that there was not significant correlation(P>0.05)between the A141G,G162A mutations and plumage color but was highly significant correlation(X2 =68.632,P<0.01)between the A331G,G364A,A399G mutations and plumage color among black-plumage mule duck and white-plumage mule duck; Two mutations, A331G,G364A ,also found in the MC1R gene in Putian black duck and Minnong white duck , Chi-Square test showed that there was highly significant correlation(X2 = 61.445,P<0.01) to the plumage color.The rusults indicated that there was highly significant correlation between A331G and G364A mutations and white-plumage duck,and MC1R gene may be the candidate gene that regulates plumage traits in duck or the duck plumage color is linkage with candidate.Experiment 2,The results showed that the specific bands were not found in black-plumage mule duck and Putian black duck.In white-plumage mule duck,the frequency of H1 was the highest,reaching 89% ,and the frequency of H1 was the lowest,only 52% .Moreover,the frequency of H1 was 81% in Minnong white duck.These results suggested that the specific band H1 could be a molecular marker for assistant selection of white plumage trait in mule duck.