Study On The Genetic Diversity Of MLPH Gene 5’UTR、 Exon 8 And Exon 16

Though the melanophilin (MLPH) gene has been characterized as one of the candidate genes for coat color dilution in human, mice and dog, little is known about it in goat. In this study, we obtained part of the 5’UTR sequences (650bp, JQ743911) and found 4 mutation sites, g.G426A, g.A570G, g.G592T and g.612-614insCTC. The PCR of these mutations and genetic diversity analysis were performed in 120 individuals from 4 goat breeds with different coat colors in different locations, in order to investigate their association with coat color and their differentiation among populations.The result showed that the Leizhou black goat had a higher genetic diversity in these loci, Jining grey goat was the lowest in the four goat breeds.Jining grey goat and Liaoning cashmere goat had a closer relationship while Leizhou black goat was the farthest. The location of goat breeds affected the gene flow and the genetic differentiation, the further the location was, the more significant difference exists.At the same time we studied the mutation sites in exon 8 and exon 16, found g.G9108A and g.G9125A in exon 8 and G18951A and g.A18955C in exon 16. Through population genetic analysis of exon 8 and 16, we found that the G18951A and g.A18955C were in the state of complete linkage disequilibrium, and found two haplotypes, the GA type had a higher proportion, Genetic differentiation mainly occurred in the breeds. Clustering result was almost the same with the result which was gotten from 5’UTR. These result also reflect the effect of breeds location that the further the location was, the more significant difference exist. There aer no significant relationship between mutation sites and coat color dilution,this might caused by the sample size is not big enough.