author(s)
Arindom Bora, Princelina Bora, N Shyamsana Singh, Prava Mayengbam and TC Tolenkhomba

abstract
The present study has been aimed to screen the presence of variation with respect to the exon- 40 region of fatty acid synthase (FASN) gene in two native swamp buffalo populations, Luit of Assam and Manipuri eroi of Manipur, India as the FASN gene has been suggested to be associated with fatty acid composition in milk and its quality. Blood samples for DNA extraction were collected from a total of 30 randomly chosen swamp buffaloes each from different districts of Assam and Manipur, India. The detection of SNP variation present in the FASN gene within these two populations has been investigated using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Three genotypes have been detected in the Luit buffalo population AA (0.37), AG (0.56) and GG (0.07) while the genotype GG was found to be absent in the Manipuri eroi buffalo with AA and AG having frequencies of 0.47 and 0.53, respectively. The A allele was observed to be predominant in both the populations with an overall allele frequency of 0.692. In regards to FASN gene and its allelic frequencies, the two populations do not show much variation between them. There is presence of variability in both the buffalo population in FASN locus which indicates the potential for genetic improvement in milk and milk fat production performance by implying proper selection methods and breeding systems.