Polymorphisms of the pro-opiomelanocortin and agouti-related protein genes and their association with chicken production traits.

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) and agouti-related protein (AGRP) are hypothalamic neuropeptides that play a central role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure and for this reason the variations in the POMC and AGRP genes in chicken were examined by screening the DNA pools. Two silent cSNPs mutations in POMC gene and one silent cSNP mutation in AGRP gene were identified. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to test the cSNPs c. C495T in the POMC and c. C9T in the AGRP gene in the F2 resource population of Gushi chicken crossed with Anak broiler. The association analysis on the polymorphisms of POMC, AGRP gene and production traits showed that the c. C495T mutation in the POMC gene was significantly linked to the pelvis breadth at 4 weeks of age (P = 0.035), body weight at 2 weeks of age (P = 0.013) and was highly significantly linked to the chest depth at 12 weeks of age (P = 0.006). The c. T9T genotype in the AGRP gene was associated with a low breast muscle water loss rate (P = 0.025), increased chest width at 12 weeks of age (P = 0.005) and body weight at 2 weeks of age (P = 0.036), a high slaughter rate (P = 0.049) and semi-evisceration weight (P = 0.019). These findings may have important implications for the molecular aspects of chicken breeding.