association of calpain gene polymorphism and type traits in iranian one-hump camels

the present study investigated the calpain gene diversity in iranian one-hump camels (120 camels) using pcr-rflp method. three genotypes aa, ag and gg were observed with the frequencies of 0.02, 0.19 and 0.78, respectively. the frequencies of a and g alleles were 0.12 and 0.88, respectively. the chi-squared test didn’t show significant deviations from hardy-weinberg equilibrium (p<0.05). association between the genotypes and type traits including body length, heart girth, height at withers, height at back and leg girth was modeled using the glm procedure of the sas program. there was a significant association between calpain genotypes and biometric traits, except for the body length (p<0.05). the gg genotype had a greater height at back (ones of type traits) compared to other genotypes. the type traits including height at withers, heart girth and abdomen girth for gg genotype were significantly higher than the aa genotype but had no significant difference with the ga genotype (p<0.05). the results suggested that calpain gene polymorphism may be a potential genetic marker for improving the growth-related traits in camels. more studies are required to confirm the effects of calpain gene on growth traits in camels.