ANIMAL GENETICS, cilt.44, sa.5, ss.588-591, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
The aim of this study was to identify the PRNP polymorphisms outside the standard codons
136, 154 and 171 in 1110 sheep with no clinical sign of scrapie from all 18 Turkish native
sheep breeds and compare our results with published data on ovine PRNP polymorphism
from other regions of the world. Among the 22 amino acid polymorphisms and three silent
mutations, 10 were novel for ovine PRNP: p.Gly94Gly, p.Leu128Ile, p.Met132Leu,
p.Ser135Arg, p.Met137Val, p.Asn146Lys, p.Arg159Arg, p.Tyr160Asn, p.Gln163His and
p.Thr193Ser. These data reveal that sheep breeds close to the historic center of small
ruminant domestication have remained highly diverse in the prion gene locus, with
distinctive genetic similarities to both Asian and European sheep breeds.