Association of Bovine Follicular Stimulating Hormone (FSH ss) Gene Polymorphism with Reproduction Traits in Iranian Holstein Bulls

The present study was aimed to examine the association of bovine follicular stimulating hormone gene polymorphism with sperm quality traits including sperm volume (SV), sperm concentration (SPCO), total sperm (TS), fresh sperm motility (FSM), total fresh motile sperm (TFMS), post thaw sperm motility (PTSM), total post thaw motile sperm (TPTMS), number of produced payout (NPP), number of fresh motile sperm in each milt ejaculation (NFMSE), motility before and after the freezing (MBATF) and number of post thaw motile sperm in each milt ejaculation (NPTMSE). We used polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 83 bulls belonging to two progeny test center. The frequency of the A (PSTI+) and B (PSTI-) alleles were 0.675 and 0.325, respectively. The genotype frequency for AA and AB were 0.35 and 0.65, respectively. The BB genotype was omitted for analysis. Mixed and probity models analyses of sperm quality traits considering genotype and environment as fixed effects and animal as a random effect suggested that sire was a significant source of variation (P<0.001) in all traits. The AB genotype resulted in a significant increase in TS (P<0.0425), NPP (P<0.0302) traits greater than AA genotype. However, AA genotype had significant effect on PTSM (P<0.0001). But not on sperm volume (SV) (P=0.1749), sperm concentration (SPCO) (P=0.1423), fresh sperm motility (FSM) (P=0.5327), number of post thaw motile sperm in each milt ejaculation (NPTMSE) (P=0.5249), total post thaw motile sperm (TPTMS) (P=0.3982), total fresh motile sperm (TFMS) (P=0.2667), total post thaw motile sperm (TPTMS) (P=0.5898) and motility before and after the freezing (MBATF) (P=0.1785). These results indicate that new molecular markers associated with sperm quality traits can be used in marker-assisted selection in bulls.