Abstract：The mutations of β3-adrenergic receptor gene(ADRB3) have effect on function of heat production in animal. To study the ADRB3 polymorphisms were associated with sheep(Ovis aries) production in Gansu Alpine Merino. The genetic polymorphisms of part of intron of ADRB3 gene in Gansu Alpine Merino were detected by PCR-SSCP. Meanwhile, effects of different PCR-SSCP genotypes and alleles of ADRB3 gene with related growth traits were analyzed. The results showed that 6 SNPs(T/C, C/T, A/G/C, T/C, A/C and T/C) corresponding to 5 alleles(A,B,C,D and E) and performing 7 kinds of genotypes(AA, AD, BD, BE, CC, CD and DD) were detected in the intron of ADRB3 gene in Gansu Alpine Merino. The allele D with the frequency of 0.4159 and genotype CD with the frequency of 0.2540 were the highest. Through the analysis of polymorphism with growth rate, the results indecated that the different genotypes had different effect on growth rate, which the difference of genotypes had significant differences with weight of 2 months(P<0.05) and had no significant differences with other stages(P>0.05). The samples with the allele A and D or the genotype AD and BD had better weight than samples with other alleles and genotypes, and the growth rate of the sample with genotype BE was the lowest. The results of this study showed that the intron of ADRB3 gene have abundant polymorphism in Gansu Alpine Merino, and the allele A and D can be used as an effective genetic markers to improve the group production performance of Gansu Alpine Merino. And the genotype AD an BD can be used as the effective markers to improve the meat production performance in hybridization and guide the improvement of meat performance in sheep.
