Estimating the copy number of the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene in goat breeds with different color patterns

The agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene has a crucial role in pigmentation by encoding that binds the melanocortin 1 receptor and stimulates synthesis of pheomelanin rather than eumelanin. Several studies have suggested an increased copy number ASIP might explain white certain goat breeds, as previously demonstrated sheep. In current work, we identified segregation CNV Murciano-Granadina (black or brown coat), Malagueña (brown, blond coat) Saanen (white goats with available Illumina Goat SNP50 BeadChip (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) data using PennCNV v1.0.5 QuantiSNP v2 tools. This result shows segregates non-white breeds. To gain new insights into this issue, estimated 83 from 8 breeds different coloration patterns real-time quantitative PCR approach. Our results showed not only (3.50 ± 0.23 copies relative to calibrator) (3.51 0.51 copies) goats, but also breed (3.33 0.58 well blond/brown individuals (3.58 0.73 breed. was significantly these four caprine populations (P > 0.05). Moreover, did observe trend towards predominantly colors, such Maltese (2.85 0.28 copies), Jonica (2.82 0.39 Blanca de Rasquera (2.37 0.33 copies). results, combined recent findings demonstrating high structural complexity locus, indicate additional functional expression should be performed order fully understand variation pigmentation.