Abstract Sheep play an important role in agricultural production and people’s lives, and fecundity is one of the most important economic traits of sheep for sheep breeders. The Booroola fecundity (FecB) gene has a certain correlation with litter size in sheep. Therefore, this study aims to detect FecB expression quickly, accurately and visually. Here, we used the nucleic acid dye SYBR Green I to detect FecB with the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS), which can efficiently, rapidly, economically and visually detect FecB expression in sheep. After ARMS polymerase chain reaction (PCR), SYBR Green I was directly added to the ARMS products, and whether the sheep carried FecB was judged by directly observing the color change in the PCR tube. Homozygous (BB) or heterozygous (B+) samples with FecB mutation were bright green, while wild type (++) samples without FecB were orange yellow. This study suggested that this method has 100% accuracy and 0.5 ng/µL sensitivity. To our knowledge, this is the first report that shows the integration of the ARMS with SYBR Green I to detect FecB expression in sheep visually.

中文翻译：

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羊FecB基因表达的快速视觉检测

摘要 绵羊在农业生产和人民生活中占有重要地位，而繁殖力是绵羊饲养者最重要的绵羊经济性状之一。Booroola繁殖力（FecB）基因与绵羊产仔数有一定的相关性。因此，本研究旨在快速、准确、直观地检测 FecB 表达。在这里，我们使用核酸染料 SYBR Green I 通过扩增难治突变系统 (ARMS) 检测 FecB，该系统可以高效、快速、经济且直观地检测绵羊中的 FecB 表达。ARMS聚合酶链反应（PCR）后，直接在ARMS产物中加入SYBR Green I，通过直接观察PCR管内的颜色变化来判断羊是否携带FecB。具有 FecB 突变的纯合 (BB) 或杂合 (B+) 样品呈亮绿色，而不含 FecB 的野生型 (++) 样品呈橙黄色。该研究表明该方法具有 100% 的准确度和 0.5 ng/µL 的灵敏度。据我们所知，这是第一份显示将 ARMS 与 SYBR Green I 集成以视觉检测绵羊 FecB 表达的报告。