Molecular characterization of leptin (obese) gene in domesticated Yak (Bos grunniens)

Abstract

Leptin is obesity gene involved in production and reproduction traits in domestic animals. In the present study complete leptin gene was sequenced in Yak hitherto uncharacterized. The complete leptin gene
was sequenced using twelve sets of overlapping primers and submitted to the GenBank. BLAST analysis was performed with other livestock species revealed 98, 98, 97, 95, 95% homology with Bos indicus, Bos taurus, Bubalus bubalis, Capra hircus and Ovis aries, respectively. Also, 54 Yak samples from two geographically different regions of India were used for SNP identification in the coding regions of the gene. Both exon 2 and 3 was found to be highly conserved, the interestingly reported bovine R4C
polymorphism was found to be fixed in Yak population.