Molecular comparative study of growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene in Egyptian and Saudi breeds of sheep (Ovis aries)

In the present study, the amplified fragment including part of sheep GHR gene exon 10 spanned bases from 590 to 783 based on nucleotide positions of Ovis aries isolate Ovis 1 (DQ062717) in GenBank. One band was detected by PCR analysis of exon 10 of sheep GHR gene in individual sheep. In order to explore the genetic variation, forty two samples including three Egyptian breeds (Rahmani, Osseimi and Barki) and two Saudi breeds (Najdi and Harri). The sequencing pattern revealed that the most common transitions were A to C and G to A, followed by T to G, G to T and A to G. The most rare transitions were A to T, C to T and T to A. there were some deletions such as A deletion was found in Barki H, Rahmani H and Harri; T deletion was found in Barki H and Barki L; C deletion was found in Osseimi H and G deletion was found in Barki H. There was only one insertion \"A insertion\" in Rahmani L. The relative similarities between different breeds revealed that Barki L and Najdi similar to O. aries with 92%, followed by Osseimi H (91%), Rahmani H (90%) and Osseimi L (87%). The highest similarities between Egyptian and Saudi breeds under study was found between Osseimi H and Najdi (96%), Rahmani H and Najdi (91%), and between Osseimi H and Harri (91%), then Rahmani H and Harri (91%). The lowest similarities between Egyptian and Saudi breeds were found between Harri and Barki L (69%) and between Najdi and Barki L (75%). The phylogenetic tree of sheep GHR gene in the different breeds showed that the most related breeds were Osseimi H (Egyptian) and Najdi (Saudi), Ossiemi H and Harri (Saudi), Najdi and Rahmani H, and Harri and Rahmani H.