Caprine milk protein polymorphisms: Possible applications for African goat breeding and preliminary data in Red Sokoto

About 70% of all milk consumed in sub-Saharan Africa is imported from other parts of the world. This trend may be reversed by encouraging production through marker assisted selection. Goats are second to cattle in milk production, they require less inputs and their small size make them attractive to smallholder production systems. This paper presents the current knowledge on milk protein polymorphisms in goats, including aS1-casein, aS2-casein, b-casein, k-casein, alactalbumin and b-lactoglobulin, and their relationships with milk quality, composition and technological properties. Moreover, the results of a preliminary investigation on milk samples from 48 Red Sokoto goats by isoelectrofocusing (IEF) are discussed. Three main alleles were detected at each of CSN1S1 and CSN1S2 loci and two IEF patterns at CSN3 locus. Finally, the paper makes recommendations for further exploitation of African goats for milk production considering the possibility for the genetic improvement of milk yield and composition, fulfilling both nutritional requirements and technological properties

Caprine milk protein polymorphisms : possible applications for African goat breeding and preliminary data in Red Sokoto

About 70% of all milk consumed in sub-Saharan Africa is imported from other parts of the world. This trend may be reversed by encouraging production through marker assisted selection. Goats are second to cattle in milk production, they require less inputs and their small size make them attractive to smallholder production systems. This paper presents the current knowledge on milk protein polymorphisms in goats, including aS1-casein, aS2-casein, b-casein, k-casein, alactalbumin and b-lactoglobulin, and their relationships with milk quality, composition and technological properties. Moreover, the results of a preliminary investigation on milk samples from 48 Red Sokoto goats by isoelectrofocusing (IEF) are discussed. Three main alleles were detected at each of CSN1S1 and CSN1S2 loci and two IEF patterns at CSN3 locus. Finally, the paper makes recommendations for further exploitation of African goats for milk production considering the possibility for the genetic improvement of milk yield and composition, fulfilling both nutritional requirements and technological properties

The casein genes in goat breeds from different Continents : analysis by Polymerase Chain Reaction - Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP)

A screening of casein gene variability was carried out by Polymerase Chain Reaction - Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism in 8 goat breeds from Sudan (Nubian goat), Turkey (Angora Goat Lalahan Tiftic, Angora Goat Yerkoy, Hair goat) and India (Jammu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, South Goat). A total of 16 different alleles or groups of alleles were found, showing conspicuous differences among breeds. The allele frequencies were submitted to cluster analysis in order to highlight differences between breeds, also including data from Red Sokoto, West African Dwarf Nigeria, West African Dwarf Cameroon, and Borno Goat. The tree obtained from the cluster analysis showed two main lineages. The West African goat clustered together, the Indian and Turkish breeds were in the other group. Nubian goat was found in an intermediate position

Candidate SNPs for carcass and meat traits in Nelore animals and in their crosses with Bos taurus

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes IGF1 (AF_017143.1: g. 198C>T), MSTN (AF_320998.1:g. 433C>A), MYOD1 (NC_007313:g. 1274A>G) and MYF5 (NC_007303:g.1911A>G) on carcass and meat traits in Nelore (Bos indicus) and Nelore x B. taurus. A total of 300 animals were genotyped and phenotyped for rib eye area (REA), backfat thickness (BT), intramuscular fat (IF), shear force (SF) and myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI). The effects of allele substitution for each SNP were estimated by regression of the evaluated phenotypes on the number of copies of a particular allele using the general linear model. The polymorphism at IGF1 was non-informative in Nelore animals. In crossbred animals, the IGF1 C allele was associated with greater REA. However, this relation was not significant after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing. The A allele of the MSTN polymorphism was absent in Nelore cattle and was only found in two crossbred animals. The polymorphisms of MYOD1 and MYF5 were little informative in Nelore animals with G allele frequency of 0.097 and A allele frequency of 0.031, respectively. These markers show no association with the analyzed traits in the total sample of evaluated animals