Allelic Polymorphism of Calpastatin Gene (CAST) in Khalkhali Goats: A Possible Marker for Meat Tenderness

Calpastatin (CAST) is a specific inhibiter of Calpains, playing a role in meat tenderization and myogenesis. In the present study the polymorphism of the CAST gene of Khalkhali goat in Azerbaijan province in Iran was investigated by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism technique (PCR-RFLP). Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood samples collected from 200 Khalkhali goats. A 1552 bp in the region between exons 6 and 7 of the CAST gene was amplified by standard PCR, using the locus specific primers. Two alleles (A and B) and three genotypes (AA, BB and AB) were observed. The frequencies of the observed genotypes were 49.7, 0.09 and 41.4 for AA, BB and AB, respectively. Allele frequencies were 0.705, 0.295 for A and B, respectively. The average heterozygosity for CAST gene was 0.416 and the expected heterozygosity was 0.417. For homozygosity these numbers were 0.91 and 0583, respectively and the chi-square test showed significant (P<0.01) deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for this locus in this population.