Abstract:  Prolactin receptor （PRLR） gene was selected as a candidate gene for chicken laying performances in this study. Ligase detection reaction was used to detect 4 polymorphic sites in PRLR gene of 378 chickens of Siming Xiang chicken B strain， namely SNP1 （C11390G）， SNP2 （A14952G）， SNP3 （A14969C） and SNP4 （A14984G）. Associations between these SNP polymorphisms and egg production within 65 weeks and 300 d， body weights at 134 d and 65 weeks， were analyzed by the least square analysis. As for single site analysis， results showed that SNP2/SNP3/SNP4 was significantly （P<005） associated with egg production within 300 d， and egg production within 300 d of genotype G/A/G was significantly （P<005） higher than that of A/C/A with 7 eggs， while SNP1 （C11390G） had no significance on the all traits detected. As for haplotype analysis， results showed that 3 haplotype for 4 SNPs of PRLR gene was detected， which were H1（CACA）， H2（GACA） and H3（CGAG）， and different haplotype had significant （P<005） differences on egg production within 300 d. The predominant haplotype was H3（CGAG）>H2（GACA）>H1（CACA） successively， in which hens of haplotype H3（CGAG） had 733 eggs more than that of H1（CACA）. It indicated that H3（CGAG） of chicken PRLR gene was the best haplotype for egg production， which was the potential marker for laying performance.

Key words:  PRLR gene, chicken, egg production, SNP