A STUDY OF PROTEASE INHIBITOR GENE POLYMORPHISM IN MEHSANA BUFFALO (Bubalus bubalis)

Protease inhibitor (PI) genes belong to the superfamily of serine protease inhibitors that includes C1 esterase, antithrombin, and alpha 1-antichymotrypsin, among others. The primary role of PI is to protect tissues against proteolytic digestion by neutrophil elastase. PI is also found to be associated with increased milk and fat yields, increased productive life and decreased somatic cell score. The present study was carried out to reveal PCR-RFLP polymorphism of protease inhibitor exon 2 fragment in Mehsana buffaloes. The buffaloes were registered under the progeny testing programme of the Dudhsagar Research and Development Association, Mehsana, Gujarat state (India). The fragment of 448 bp of PI gene (exon 2) locus was amplified by PCR and subsequently digested with restriction enzyme SfaN1. It revealed monomorphic patterns. Further representative samples were cloned and sequenced. On comparison with published cattle sequences, the nucleotide sequence variation between cattle and buffalo was present at ten nucleotide positions, i.e., 110, 141, 146, 170, 236, 257, 277, 306, 350, and 396.