Abstract

Pit-1 is a pituitary-specific transcriptional factor that has been shown to play a critical role both in cell differentiation during organogenesis of the anterior pituitary and as a transcriptional activator for pituitary gene transcription. This study was designed to investigate the associations of Pit-1 gene polymorphism on chicken body growth and body composition traits. Genomic DNA was extracted from 120 chickens from Iranian commercial broiler line. Two polymorphisms of the Pit-1 gene were found with restriction fragment length polymorphisms. The association between these polymorphisms with chicken growth and body composition traits were analyzed using single marker analysis. Polymorphisms in Pit-1 gene were significantly (P<0.1) associated with body growth and body composition traits. Thisstudy suggests that Pit-1 gene could be a candidate locus or linked to major gene(s) that affects growth and body composition traits in the chicken.

Key words: Iranian broiler lines, growth and body composition traits, pituitary-specific transcription factor gene (Pit 1), polymorphism, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).