Study On Behavior And Polymorphisms Of DRD4 ?5-HT1A Gene In Sansui Duck

To investigate the behavioral habits of caged Sansui duck in order to solve the problem between animal welfare and production, a study on behavior of Sansui duck based on the parameters physiology and genetics was conducted to develop and utilize the native breed. For behavior analysis, the software of Media record was used to track Sansui duck's behavior under different phase. The Observer XT(11.5) was applied to define the behavior of Sansui duck for the statistical analysis. The types of behaviors were identified as resting?exercise?embellishing?preening?alerting?aggression?drinking?ingestion etc. The time allocation and activity rhythms of Sansui duck were analysised, the mutual conversion relationship between different behaviors was also conducted in this study. For physiological analysis, serum corticosterone levels of three different birds after transferring into cages were determined by the method of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The behavioral changes were recorded. For genetics analysis, using DNA pool and PCR products directly sequencing were used to detect the SNPs polymorphism of gene(DRD4?5-HT1A), the results were analysised by bioinformatics. The research results were as follows:1.The main behaviors of for Sansui duck in different growth periods included lying-standing ? standing ? shorter preening and drinking, the time percentage of preening for mid-growth stage was 5.54%, while 1.54% for ducking and 1.29% for adult. The time percentages for drinking behavior was 1.88% for duckling, 1.98% for duck at mid-growth stage, 1.69% for adult respectively. The time percentages of walking spent were 1.17%?0.88%?0.64%, respectively. Less time proportions of other's behavior were detected. The behavior in different growth periods had diversity,the significantly differences were found in wagging?shaking body?stretching body?preening(urosome)?rubing between duck at the stage of growth and adult duck. The significantly differences between duck at growth period and adult could observed in wagging, tail preening,back preening. The daily rhythms of behavior were studied in three periods of ducks, the activities of preening? feeding?drinking and exploring displaying obvious change(P<0.05, The mean difference is significant at 0.05 level).The behavior showed the different rhythms in different growth periods. Foarging and drinking peaked at 8:00-9:00. Correlation analysis showed that the lying-standing and wing flapping ? wagging, preening and body stretching were negative correlation(R=-0.986,P<0.05;R=-0.981,P<0.05;R=-0.982,P<0.05). The frequency was very negatively correlated with lying-standing and lowlering head(R=-0.981,P<0.01).The frequency was positively correlated with stretching body and wagging,froliclying and continuous nodding, rubing and heading, wing fiaping and nodding and so on(R=0.957, P<0.05; R=0.952, P<0.05; R=0.976, P<0.05; R=0.981, P<0.05).Stretching body and wagging?laughing and alerting?standing and fiaping wing were very significant correlation(R=1.000, P<0.01; R=0.999, P<0.01; R=0.990, P<0.01).2.Stress determination was conducted when birds were transferred the cages for one week among three duck breeds. The results showed that, the corticosterone contents in blood were not significantly affected after birds were transferred into cages and got stress and only a slight increasing, compared with those feeding on the ground(P>0.05). The corticosterone concentrations increased in earlier days and then decreased at the last days during the 7 days. Ducks appeared less drinking and ingestion behavior, but serious fearful and anxious.3.Sequencing results showed that there existed a C?T mutation in position of951 bp of 5-HT1 A gene(exon-C951T), four SNPs in DRD4 gene were detected, which including exon2-C12406 T, exon3-A13144 G, intron2-C12777 T and intron2-T12789 C.Two of which(exon2-C12406 T, exon3-A13144G) were synonymous mutations. The results for bioinformatic analysis of DRD4 gene indicated that the synonymous mutations could cause the change of allele frequency. But no differences were found after m RNA secondary structure, secondary and tertiary protein structure were predicted.