Zebu (Bos indicus) cattle are known to be resistant against foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) compared to taurine (Bos taurus). To understand the susceptibility of two cattle species to FMDV infection in terms of viral receptors, the present study reports the cloning, characterization and sequence analysis of Zebu ITGB6 gene. The complete CDS of zebu ITGB6 was 2367 basepair in length with 788 amino acid residues. The zebu integrin shares common structural and functional elements with taurine and other species. We identified an amino substitution (S665 to F665) presents in ITGB6 gene among zebu and taurine as SNP (rs136500299). Further, we determined and compared the structural differences of ITGB6 receptor gene among zebu and taurine species. To elucidate the influence of the SNP on the susceptibility of cattle to FMDV infection, a tetra ARMS PCR based genetic screening was performed among Zebu and crossbred cattle. Our observation revealed that, the targeted SNP are strongly (P < 0.05) associated with FMD susceptibility among Frieswal (HF X Sahiwal) crossbred cattle.
Keywords: FMDV; Frieswal; ITGB6; SNP.