Abstract

The Avian Uncoupling Protein (avUCP) belongs to the mitochondrial anion transporter family. It has a pivotal homeostatic mechanism that associated with energy regulation and lipid metabolism. The avUCP considered as a candidate gene for chicken growth-related traits according to its predominant expression is in skeletal muscle. To address genetic distance pattern of UCP3 between mammalian and avian species, sequence similarity analysis using the protein alignment of UCP3 identified the high amino acid identity between the species and complementarily detected two protein conserved regions which are known as the ADP/ATP transporter translocase and the Mitochondria-carrier. Likewise, for mutation detection, samples were genotyped, afterward PCR-SSCP method implemented. In addition, association analysis was performed for investigating single nucleotide polymorphism within the UCP3 gene relating to the given economic traits. A detected polymorphic site, on the promoter region of UCP3 (-40 T/A substitution), has displayed significant influences on the Feed Conversion Rate (FCR), Residual Feed Intake (RFI), Average Daily Gain (ADG), and Carcass Weight (CW%). In the case that, birds with genotype AA had better FCR, ADG, RFI as compared to the genotype BB and birds with genotype AA revealed a higher CW% as compared to the genotype BB. According to the obtained results from the in-silico survey, Myoblast determination protein (MyoD) was predicted as a best-matched transcription factor with a consensus sequence harboring the -40 T/A -novel SNP- in the promoter region of UCP3, where might be responsible for phenotypic variation between two genotypes. In conclusion, the result suggests important roles for UCP3 polymorphism in feed efficiency and growth traits which is better to be used in broiler chicken breeding programs.