Abstract: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of exons 5, 6, 7 of bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) gene were detected in 301 individuals of five sheep breeds (Small-tailed Han, Hu, Dorset, Texel and Corriedale sheep) with three pairs of primers by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). No polymorphisms were detected in the amplified regions of three pairs of primers in five sheep breeds tested, which may indicate that the sequences of exons 5, 6, 7 of BMP6 gene were rather conserved. On the other hand, partial sequences of BMP6 mRNA were cloned from Small-tailed Han sheep (695 bp) and Jining Grey goat (699 bp) respectively, and the sequences (785 bp) of intron between exon 3 and exon 4 with some of the two flanking exons were also sequenced in Small-tailed Han sheep. The two BMP6 sequences show high identity with 99.28% at nucleotide level and 98.1% at amino acid level, and besides an insert of alanine in goat, only 4 amino acid alterations were found between them (211 in total). Compared with the ovine nucleotide and amino acid sequence of BMP6 with that of cattle, human, mouse and rat, identities of 97.04%, 81.82%, 84.68%, 85.06% and identities of 99.05%, 91.43%, 90.48%, 92.38% were revealed respectively. The results suggested that although the nucleotide changes are a little big, the amino acid sequences of BMP6 are very conservative among species.