Mutational and evolutionary analyses of MC1R gene in exotic and Nigerian indigenous turkeys with different colored feathers was investigated at the Ambrose Alli university, Ekpoma, Edo State. A total of 60 poults comprising 15 each of exotic and the three genotypes of Nigerian indigenous turkeys (white, black and lavender plumage colour) were used for this experiment. About 1 ml blood sample was collected with needle and syringe from brachia vein of each turkey and transferred into ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid bottle, for DNA extraction. Genomic DNA was extracted using Quick- DNA Mini-prep Plus extraction kits with adherence to manufacturer protocol.  A pair of primers was designed to amplify exon 1of MC1R gene in turkey using NCBI primer BLAST. A total of 9 SNPs were identified in exon 1 of MC1R gene in exotic and Nigerian indigenous turkeys. The major allele frequency ranged from 0.57 to 0.86. The highest heterozygosity (0.49) was obtained for SNPs 312A<G in exotic turkey and 580G<A in Nigerian local black turkey. Similarly the highest polymorphism information content (PIC) of 0.37 was observed for mutations 312A<G in exotic turkey and 580G<A in Nigerian local black turkey. Seven haplotypes were identified with 5 in exotic, 3 in Nigerian local white, 1 in Nigerian local black and 2 in lavender genotypes. The exotic turkey has the highest number of haplotype diversity (0.952), nucleotide diversity (0.00370) and average number of nucleotide difference (2.667). Negative and non-significant (p>0.05) Tajima’s D values were estimated for exon 1 of MC1R gene in all the turkey genotypes while negative Fu’s Fs value was observed in exotic turkey. The Fu and Li’s D and Fu and Li’s F were not significant (p<0.10) and the values were negative across the genotypes. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that Nigerian local black and lavender turkeys are more related while the Nigerian local white is more related to exotic. The study concluded that exon 1 in MC1R gene is polymorphic in exotic and Nigerian indigenous turkeys and the SNPs and haplotypes identified can be used to characterize Nigerian indigenous turkeys into different genotypes based on plumage colour.

Keywords: MC1R gene, Nigerian local black turkey, Nigerian local white turkey, Lavender, Exotic turkey