Journal of Animal Production, Print ISSN: 2008-6776., Online ISSN: 2382-994X

Genetic diversity analysis of the Interleukin-4 receptor gene (IL-4R) sequence in Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Arghavan Bastam 1
Gholam Dashab 2
Hossein Bazzi 3

1 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. E-mail: arghavan.bastam@uoz.ac.ir

2 Corresponding Author, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. E-mail: dashab@uoz.ac.ir

3 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. E-mail: h.bazzi@uoz.ac.ir

https://doi.org/10.22059/jap.2026.410018.623896
Abstract
Objective: Interleukin-4 receptor gene (IL-4R) is an important molecule in immune signaling pathways that control immune responses and reproductive functions in mammals. The objective of this study was to explore the IL-4R gene sequence diversity and to compare nucleotide variation, substitution patterns, selective pressures, and phylogenetic relationships between European cattle (Bos taurus) and Indian cattle (Bos indicus).
Method: In this regard, we retrieved 26 nucleotide sequences from the NCBI and Ensemble databases related to various breeds of both European and Indian species and aligned them using the CLUSTAL-W algorithm in MEGA, and subsequently the number and types of mutations and the amount of polymorphism, nucleotide diversity, the number of similar and non-similar substitutions, the percentage nucleotide transition and transversion substitutions was calculated using MEGA11 and Dnaspv5 software. The percentage of nucleotide transition and transversion substitutions was calculated using the composite maximum likelihood method. Haplotype diversity was calculated based on the maximum likelihood method and genetic distance was calculated based on the Tamura-Nei model and finally the phylogenetic tree was drawn using the Neighbor-joining (NJ) method. To assess selective pressure acting on the IL-4R gene, the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions (dN/dS) was estimated.
Results: The nucleotide diversity was estimated to be 0.33 in European cattle and 0.214 in Indian cattle, which suggests a higher level of genetic variability of Bos taurus compared to Bos indicus. The frequency of transitional substitutions was higher than the frequency of trans versional substitutions in all populations examined. The dN/dS ratio was 0.9 in European cattle, while that of Indian cattle was 1.11, suggesting that the IL-4R gene is under positive selection in Indian cattle. The results of phylogenetic analysis of the IL-4R gene showed that the gene in both groups of cattle had different evolutionary patterns, although they share a common ancestor, and that European cattle had more evolutionary divergence and likely have had a longer evolutionary time for this gene compared to Indian cattle.
Conclusions: The results of this study revealed distinct evolutionary patterns in European and Indian cattle. The results also suggest that the IL-4R gene has experienced distinct selective pressures in the evolutionary process between European and Indian cattle, where pure selection dominates in European cattle and there is evidence of positive selection in Indian cattle. Thus, besides furthering the molecular evolution and genetic diversity of immune genes in cattle, the above results can be applied to the breeding strategies of cattle in the future, especially in the area of immune function and disease resistance.

Keywords

Bos taurus
Bos indicus
Interleukin-4 receptor gene
Natural selection
Phylogenetic
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Journal of Animal Production, Print ISSN: 2008-6776., Online ISSN: 2382-994X
Volume 28, Issue 3
Summer 2026
Pages 307-317

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