Association of MyoD gene with body weight and growth rate in Thai native chickens Pradu hangdam morkhor 55 crossbreds and Broiler

Abstract

Increasing body weight and growth rate is an important aspect for poultry production. Many reported on the role of MyoD genes associated with muscle development and growth rate in poultry. The objective of this study was to identify the patterns and association of MyoD gene with body weight and growth rate in Thai native chickens. A total of 5 groups of 100 each were Pradu hangdam morkhor 55 (PD), Chinese black bone (CB), Broiler, and 2 crossbred chickens according Pradu hangdam morkhor 55 x Chinese Black Bone (PD x CB), and Chinese Black Bone x Pradu hangdam morkhor 55 (CB x PD). All chickens were fed ad libitum within the 20%CP and 18%CP commercial broiler diet, which associated with nutrient requirement of chicken, and raised open house system. This study was to investigate of the MyoD gene patterns by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. The results showed three genotypes of MyoD gene (AA, AB and BB), the broiler had highest genotype frequencies was AA genotype (0.64), Crossbred Chinese Back Bone x Pradu hangdam morkhor 55 had highest genotype frequencies was AB genotype (0.48), Pradu hangdam morkhor 55 had highest genotype frequencies was BB genotype (0.58). While broiler and both Crossbred had the highest frequencies of A allele, but native chicken including Pradu hangdam morkho 55 and Chinese black bone were represented the highest frequencies of B alleles. Association of MyoD gene and body weight showed that genotype AA was associated with increased body weight at 2 weeks in Thai native chicken (PD) and both their crossbred, the results showed that genotype AA and BB were associated with growth rate more than genotype AB in Chinese black bone, at 0-8, 0-10 and 0-12 weeks. These results indicated that genetic variation of MyoD gene may be involved in body weight and growth rate in Thai native chicken (Pradu hangdam morkho 55) and their crossbred. Therefore, the finding suggests that variation of MyoD gene are compromising to use as genetic marker to improve body weight in Thai native and crossbred chickens.