Characterization and association studies berween melatonin receptor 1A (MTNR1A) polymorphisms and reproductive seasonality trait in Rasa aragonesa sheep breed

This work focuses on the characterization and evaluation of MTNR1A as a candidate gene related to reproductive seasonality trait in the Rasa Aragonesa sheep breed. MTNR1A has shown influence on reproductive seasonality in other breeds. A significant effect was found between SNP606 of the MTNR1A gene and spontaneous out of season oestrous behaviour. The T allele was associated with cyclicity in Rasa Aragonesa breed. This finding, along with that this polymorphism does not result in an amino-acid substitution, suggest that SNP606 may act in linkage equilibrium with a mutation in other genes responsible for out of season breeding. New polymorphisms in the coding region (11 SNPs) of the gene MTNR1A did not show any association for breeding out of season in the Rasa Aragonesa breed. Association between the polymorphisms found in the promotor region (17 SNPs) and ciclicity have not been completed ye