Polymorphisms in GDF9 and BMP15 Associated with Fertility and Ovulation Rate in Moghani and Ghezel Sheep in Iran

The genetic base of fertility and ovulation rate in Moghani and Ghezel sheep in northwestern Iran and northeastern Turkey is important because of their fat‐tailed meat and carpet quality wool. The genes encoding bone morphogenetic (BM) protein 15 and growth differentiation (GD) factor 9, respectively BMP15 and GDF9 have been shown to affect female productivity in domesticated sheep. Recently, numerous investigations have been performed on a variety of breeds to determine the association between mutations in these genes and fertility. Thus, in this study, we assessed such mutations in the Moghani and Ghezel breeds using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) with appropriate enzymes. Our data were similar to those of the previous studies showing that the genotypes were heterozygous for GD (G →A) and BM (C →T) mutations. These heterozygous genotypes resulted in higher ovulation rates, illustrating that one copy of each of the BMP15 and GDF9 mutations had equivalent effects on the ovulation rate. We demonstrate for the first time that the BM variant may not be sufficient on its own for infertility. In addition, although the previous studies have shown no notable relationship between the GD variant, known as the non‐effecting mutation and sterility, we report that this mutation has an important role in the Moghani and Ghezel breeds.