TY - BOOK AU - Muhammad Waseem Shahzad (2010-VA-499) AU - Dr. Afzal Ali AU - Dr. Khalid Mahmood Anjum ED - TI - Association Study Of Gdf9 Gene With Litter Size In Kajli Sheep U1 - 2767-T PY - 2016/// KW - Genetics N1 - Genetic characterization of meat type animals, especially the indigenous sheep breeds is of great concern now a days. The GDF9 gene is known as a candidate gene for fecundity, development and growth of livestock especially small ruminants (sheep and goats) because it plays its major role in increasing ovulation rate, growth and differentiation of oocytes. The variations in the coding region of GDF9 gene and its relationship with ovulation rate and litter size have been extensively studied and reviewed in small and large ruminants worldwide, but there is a very little exploration about the role of GDF9 gene in sheep breeds of Pakistan. As Kajli sheep is well known meat type sheep breed of Punjab, Pakistan so, this study aimed to characterize the genetic variations and their association with litter size in Kajli sheep. A total of 80 adult female (> 2.5 years old ) animals belonging to Kajli sheep breed were randomly selected from the flock maintained at Livestock Experiment Station, Khizerabad Sargodha. 5 ml blood sample was collected from each animal in a 15 ml falcon tube containing EDTA as an anticoagulant. A primer set reported by Barzegari et al. (2010) was used to amplify the exon-1 of GDF9 gene. Variation in PCR product was detected using RFLP technique. The outcomes of this study reported homozygosity for GDF9 exon 1 Hha1 SNP. From this study, it has been concluded that fecundity may depend on several other features such as season of lambing, age of ewe and nutrition or maybe there is/are some other major gene/s in Kajli sheep and there is a great need to explore some other genomic regions that might found with variants associated with litter size or multiple ovulation in Kajli sheep ER -