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

abstract
The Mx protein gene has been found to be associated with antiviral activity in chicken, in many previous researches. The aim of this study has been to assess and uncover the presence of polymorphism within the Mx protein gene in native chicken ‘Zo-ar’ of Mizoram, a state of India and to observe and analyse the allelic and genotypic frequency in order to screen the variation present in the studied population with respect to the Mx protein gene which is associated with disease resistant traits in poultry and indirectly associated with production and reproduction performance. DNA isolation has been done from blood samples collected 50 randomly chosen ‘Zo-ar’ chicken irrespective of their age or sex. The polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique has been used for the detection of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms within the Mx gene. Three genotypes AA (0.14), AG (0.46) and GG (0.40) were found. The G allele (0.63) was observed to be predominantly present and the observed heterozygosity was found to be 0.46 in the population. Further, the population was found to be conforming to the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium with respect to the Mx protein locus. From the present study the prevalence of variation within the Mx locus could seen in the ‘Zo-ar’ chicken population of Mizoram which further shows possibility of genetic improvement in disease resistance and egg production traits provided proper selection methods and formulating of appropriate mating systems are done.