Abstract: Hypoxia can restrict fetal growth and increase the mortality of chicken embryos. Under hypoxia conditions, the fetal growth of the high-altitude chicken was restricted but to a lesser extent compared to the fetal growth of the lowland chicken. Mutations in NADH dehydrogenase subunits may affect mitochondrial functions including the production of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which is required in fetal growth. A missense substitution at nucleotide position 1627 of mitochondrially encoded NADH dehydrogenase subunit-5 gene (MT-ND5) has been found in a high-altitude chicken breed of the Tibet chicken which originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and has adapted itself well to hypoxia. The objective of the present study was to investigate association of the MT-ND5 mutation with the fetal growth of the Tibet chicken. The genotypes of hens were identified using amplified created restriction sites and embryonic genotypes were determined by the genotypes of their mothers. Breeding eggs before incubation and fetuses at day 9 and 16 of incubation were weighed. The results showed that the MT-ND5 gene variation was significantly associated with the growth of the Tibet chicken fetus under hypoxia condition but not under normoxia condition which implied that the MT-ND5 gene could be one of putative candidate genes or linked to important genes that affect chicken fetal growth at high altitude.
H.G. Bao and J.Y. Li, 2011. A Missense Mutation in Mitochondrially Encoded NADH Dehydrogenase Subunit-5 Gene Associates with Chicken Fetal Growth under Hypoxia Condition. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 10: 1991-1993.