PROTEIN POLYMORPHISM OF SOME CAMEL BREEDS IN EGYPT

I.M. Ismail 1, M. Mourad 2, A.Z.E. Abdelsalam 3 and N.Z. Bedier 1
Department of Animal Breeding, Desert Research Centre, Materia, Cairo1, Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University2, Shoubra El- Kheima Cairo, Egypt, Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University3, Shoubra El- Kheima, Cairo, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Sixty one camels of approximately same age group belonging to Fallahy, Magrabi, Sudany and Mowaled breeds were used to measure variations in their plasma protein electrophoretic banding patterns by native gel electrophoresis. The electrophoretic patterns between and within the 4 camel breeds revealed the presence of 7 different fractions viz. immunoglobulin, post transferring, a-globulin, transferrin,b-globulin, albumin and post-albumin. Specific protein markers for males and females within each breed as well as between camel breeds were observed. Some pairs of breeds were also genetically characterised by specific protein marker viz, “Mowaled and Falahi”, “Sudany and Falahi” and “Sudany and Maghraby” which reflected a relationship between intra-paired breeds. Homogeneity ratios were 10.0, 16.7, 31.6 and 20.8% for Maghraby, Sudany, Falahy and Mowaled, respectively. Genetic similarity estimates varied between 0.81 and 0.88, 0.78 and 0.92, and 0.66 and 0.78 for intra-breed males, intra-breed females and as camel breeds, respectively.
Key words: Camel breeds, gel electrophoreris, genetic similarity, protein polymorphism, variability