PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP OF GROWTH HORMONE, INSULIN-LIKE GROWTH FACTOR 1 AND MYOSTATIN GENE SEQUENCES IN CHICKEN, RABBIT AND SHEEP

Abstract

The gene sequences of Growth hormone (GH), Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) and Myostatin (MSTN) were downloaded from National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, in FASTA format, using respective accession numbers (Table 1) of the genes in the GenBank to access the necessary gene information. The phylogenetic trees were drawn to reveal evolutionary relationships between the genes of the three species by submitting the genes respective sequences in FASTA format to MEGA7 tool. Results indicated that; Chicken GH gene had nucleotides substitution of 0.15 in the gene sequence, and rabbit GH gene had nucleotide substitution of 0.17 in the gene sequence. While, the sheep GH gene had nucleotide substitution of 0.25 in the gene sequence. Rabbit myostatin gene had nucleotides substitution of 0.14 in the gene sequence, and sheep myostatin gene had nucleotide substitution of 0.12 in the gene sequence. While, the chicken myostatin gene had nucleotide substitution of 0.38 in the gene sequence. Rabbit IGF-1 gene had nucleotides substitution of 0.18 in the gene sequence, and sheep IGF-1 gene had nucleotide substitution of 0.17 in the gene sequence. While, the chicken IGF-1 gene had nucleotide substitution of 0.57 in the gene sequence. It is concluded that; the higher the rate of substitution in phylogenetic relationship among the three genes of the three species indicate the more the chance/advantage for the gene or specie to improve more over time through research/selection while the lesser the rate of substitution indicates the genes are reaching a bottle neck in selection.