Diversity study analysis of Leptin gene in some ruminant and non-ruminant selected animal species

The key element of the system regulating food intake has proven to be the Leptin. It act as hunger centre in the hypothalamus and affects the regulation of appetite. It has also been shown that Leptin gene influence milk performance in sheep, cattle and reproduction performance in beef cattle. Genetic characterization to assess the existing biodiversity and differences among the important livestock breeds is an essential pre-requisite to facilitate the conservation program in an effective and meaningful way. This paper sought to study the diversity analysis of Leptin gene in some ruminant and non-ruminant animal species. A total of twenty three (23) Leptin gene sequences belonging to eight (8) species: Cattle (3), Sheep (3), Goat (3), Swine (3), Horse (2), Camel (3), Mouse (3) and Rabbit (3) were retrieved from Genbank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Sequences alignment, translation and comparison were done using ClustalW of the MEGA 6.0. The minimum distance matrix (Dxy) value (0.02) was observed between the sequence of cattle and goat while the maximum Dxy value (2.72) was seen between cattle and sheep in ruminant species. In non-ruminant species the highest Dxy value (17.61) was seen between rabbit and camel while the minimum Dxy value (0.18) was observed between mouse and camel respectively. The smaller the distance matrix value, the closer the sequence of the species and the lesser the genetic distance among or between species whereas the larger the Dxy value, the higher the genetic distance among and between species investigated. This finding could provide basis for selection when considering evolution and differentiation among species.