Variability Of The GOLA-DRB1 Gene Exon 2 In Hexi Cashmere Goat

The variation of gene GOLA-DRB1 exon 2 and the association of alleles with pregnancy in Hexi Cashmere Goat were genotyped using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) technology and by cloning, sequencing and sequence data analysis. Twenty six alleles were identified at gene GOLA-DRB1 exon 2. These alleles on exon 2 had not been reported previously. Sequence analysis indicated that there were 71 single nucleotide polymorphism sites, which occupied 30% of exon 2 sequences.Twenty five transition sites, thirty five transversion sites, and 9 overlapping transition and transversion sites were identified, representing nucleotide polymorphism 49.3%, 35.2%, and 9.0%, respectively. Goat abortion correlation analysis showed that frequencies of alleles DRB1*EX2-18,DRB1*EX2-23,DRB1*EX2-26 in abortion group were higher than those of control group, and the difference had statistical significance(p<0.05). Frequencies of DRB1*EX2-8 were significantly higher than those in control grorp(p<0.01); In contrast, DRB1*EX2-1 and DRB1*EX2-11 allelics frequencies in abortion groups were significantly lower than those in control group and the difference had statistical significance(p<0.01). The results suggested that the alleles GOLA-DRB1*EX2-8 might associated with abortion and AllelesGOLA-DRB1*EX2-1 and GOLA-DRB1*EX2-11 might related to pregnancy protection in Hexi Cashmere Goat.