Association Of ASIP,KIT And STX17 Gene Polymorphisms With Donkey’s Coat Color

Coat color is an important phenotypic trait.ASIP,KIT,STX17 genes were important candidate genes influencing mammalian coat color.In this study,PCR,direct sequencing,and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP)methods were used to analyze the relationship of polymorphisms of ASIP,KIT,STX17 genes with donkey coat colors.The results showed as follows.(1)The mutation(c.349 T>C)in exon 3 of the ASIP gene was detected in Chinese donkeys,which can distinguish the solid-black(genotype CC)and non-black(genotype TT and TC)donkeys in China.In 590 samples of 13 Chinese local donkey breeds,the frequency of the solid-black donkeys(genotype CC)was 0.080,and the frequency of the non-black donkeys(genotype TT and TC)was 0.920.The PCR-RFLP technique of the mutation(c.349 T>C)in exon 3 of ASIP gene,which can distinguish the solid-black(genotype CC)and non-black(genotype TT and TC)donkeys,was a simple and useful molecular marker during the early selection of Chinese the solid-black donkeys.(2)Two SNPs in exon(g.64649 A>G in exon 8,g.79646 A>C in exon 21),one SNP in 5’UTR(g.69 C>A),one SNP in 3’UTR(g.79948 C>T),one SNP in the upstream-1857 bp of start codon(g.-1857 C>T),4 bp insertion/deletion in intron 3,and 41 SNPs in intron of KIT gene in Chinese donkeys were detected.All these detected SNPs didn’t show any association with coat color of donkeys.(3)There may be an insertion sequence of about 1.2 kb on the 6 intron of the STX17 gene in solid-black donkey.There was no SNPs in the exon region of the STX17 gene,but both the insertion sequence and two SNPs which were detected on the 6 intron are no correlation with the coat color phenotype.