Molecular genetics and bioinformatics analysis of EDG1 and AKIRIN2 genes in Iranian fat-tailed and nonfat-tailed sheep breeds

•Association between regulatory regions of EDG1 and AKIRIN2 genes affecting marbling were investigated in Iranian fat-tailed and nonfat-tailed sheep breeds.•The EDG1 was highly polymorph in studied sheep breeds with six banding patterns.•The alignment and motif analysis of sequences showed incidence of 11 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and 18 DNA motifs in EDG1 marker site.•The significant association between EDG1 gene haplotypes and banding patterns with fat-tail traits was seen in Lori-Bakhtiari sheep.•This study was the first effort for evaluate of these genes in sheep.