Single nucleotide polymorphism of melanocortin-4 receptor gene in American mink (neovison vison)

Melanocortins are an important group of proteins controlling food intake and body weight. the most important hormone involved in the regulation of appetite,body weight and systemic energy expenditure is a-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (a-msh). these effects are caused by a-msh interacting with its specific membrane receptors: mc1r,mc2r,mc3r,mc4r,and mc5r. in fur animals,growth-related features are particularly important as body weight is associated with the quantity of harvested skin/fur,which directly translates into its value. the objective of the study was to determine the nucleotide sequence of the mc4r gene in american mink (neovison vison schreb.,1777),as well as to detect the genetic polymorphisms within the coding sequence,as well as in 5'-and 3'-utr fragments of that gene in different color ariations of minks bred at a mink farm. gene sequencing facilitated the determination of the complete sequence and genomic variations of the mc4r gene in american mink,as well as the identification of two synonymic mutations at positions 291 and 330 within the coding sequence of the gene. the mc4r gene polymorphism was detected by means of the acrs-pcr-rflp technique. the obtained pcr products were digested by the following enzymes: ncoi (291),and bamhi (330). statistically significant differences were observed in the frequency of genotype cc between specimens of different color variations with regard to the single-nucleotide polymorphisms at positions 291 and 330. also demonstrated was a disturbance of genetic equilibrium estimated according to the hardy-weinberg formula. © copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.