Abstract: In order to study genetic variation of TYR gene in four chicken breeds selected from special district including Guyuan， Wenchang， Tibetan and Hisex chicken， two sites of the gene exon1 and one site of 5′ flanking region were analyzed by PCRSSCP and DNA sequencing. The result indicated: there was no polymorphism at P2 site， while at P1 site， there were three genotypes (AA,BB,AB) in three Chinese chicken breeds respectively. They were all in equilibrium at P1 site. At P3 site， there were three genotypes (AA， BB and AB) in Chinese local chicken breeds (Guyuan， Wenchang and Tibetan chicken) and two genotypes (AA and AB) in Hisex chicken breed. Guyuan and Wenchang breeds were in equilibrium at the site， but Tibetan and Hisex breeds were extremely in unbalance. It is concluded that there was abundant variation of TYR gene in Chinese local chicken breeds. DNA sequencing of PCR products for different genotypes showed that there were two mutation sites: C to T at P1 site and G to A at P3 site, respectively， which didn’t cause amino acid variation at P1 site. The chisquare analysis revealed that there was significant statistical difference in distribution of genotype and allele frequencies at the two TYR sites among the analyzed four chicken populations (P<0.05 and P<0.01). It revealed that there was significant association between genotype and chicken breeds. This study provided original information for elucidating the possible roles of TYR gene of exon1 and 5′ flanking region in different chicken populations.