The Potency of Leptin Gene as a Selection Marker of Economic Traits for Madura Cattle: Preliminary Study

Abstract

The Leptin gene, also known as ‘obese’, was an important regulator of growth traits which is the principal economic value of beef cattle. This paper aimed to investigate the potency of the Leptin gene as a selection marker of economic traits for Madura cattle. This study was performed by literature review from published studies. First, publications were collected to obtain a Leptin genes study on Madura cattle and Indonesian Cattle. Next, association study publications were collected to obtain Leptin gene polymorphism and its effect on the economic traits of various cattle. The selected economic traits were growth, carcass, milk, and reproduction. In total, 26 papers were used in this study. As a results, we found Leptin gene studies on nine Indonesian local cattle, including Madura, Kebumen Ongole Grade, Ongole Grade, Sumba Ongole, Bali, Pasundan, Bali Cross, Pesisir and Ciamis Local Cattle. However, most of this study is limited to polymorphism identification. Exon 2, Intron 2, and Exon 3 of the Leptin gene polymorphism were associated with four selected economic traits on several loci. However, Leptin gene SNP g.1180C>T (also referred to as R25C, Arg25Cys, 1047C>T, C305T, R4C, C73T, and LepKpn2I) in exon 2 was known to had association with growth, carcass, milk, and reproduction trait. It was concluded that SNP g.1180C>T had the potency to be used as a selection marker of economic traits for Madura cattle. Following marker selection, an association study on Madura Cattle was further to validate this result.