Abstract

Pit-1 is a pituitary-specific transcription factor responsible for pituitary development and hormone expression in mammals. Pit-1 is a member of the POU domain containing proteins, a group of transcriptional regulators with a critical role in cell differentiation and proliferation. It was shown that this group of proteins control the transcription of the growth hormone (GH), the prolactin (PRL), the thyroid-stimulating hormone β-subunit (TSH-β), the GHRH receptor genes and the Pit-1gene itself. In this study, the Pit-1/HinfI and Pit-1/TaqI loci were investigated using PCR-RFLP approach in a sample of 104 Podolica cattle. All the possible genotypes for both single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified. The allelic frequencies at Pit-1/TaqI locus were 0.76 (G) and 0.24 (A), while those at Pit-1/HinfIlocus were 0.70 (B) and 0.30 (A). Combined genotypic frequencies and possible haplotypes frequencies were also reported. Moreover, some population genetic indexes, namely: gene heterozygosity (He), gene homozygosity (Ho), effective allele numbers (N_e), fixation index (F_IS) and polymorphism information content (PIC) were calculated.

Key words: POU1F1 gene, Podolica breed, PCR-RFLP.