Allelic Variation of MYF5 Gene Detected in the Camelus bactrianus

The myogenic factors (MYF) 5 gene has been reported to contribute to muscle growth and development, therefore they are considered as candidate genes for growth and meat quality related traits. The MYF5 gene is expressed during proliferation of myoblasts and comprises 3 exons. To ascertain whether there is any variation in the camel MYF5 gene, we have used a polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) method for the analysis. In this study, coding region (exon 1) of the MYF5 gene was investigated. Four unique SSCP patterns were detected in exon 1. Two Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected - A/G and G/A in 98 and 366 position, respectively that create four haplo-type, related to banding patterns. The variations detected in this study leads to a serin/asparagine and tryp-tophan/stop codon amino acid changes, respectively and could be considered for the development of gene-assisted selection in camel breeding.