Polymorphism Identification, RH Mapping and Association of 慣-Lactalbumin Gene with Milk Performance Traits in Chinese Holstein Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Lactose synthase catalyses the formation of lactose which is the major osmole of bovine milk and regulates the milk volume. Alpha-lactalbumin (-LA) is involved in the synthesis of lactose synthase in the mammary gland. Therefore -LA is regarded as a plausible candidate gene for the milk yield trait. To determine whether -LA is associated with milk performance traits, 1,028 Chinese Holstein cows were used to detect polymorphisms in the -LA by means of single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). Two nucleotide transitions were identified in the 5' flanking region and intron 3 of -LA. Associations of such polymorphisms with five milk performance traits were analyzed using a general linear model procedure. No significant associations were observed between these polymorphisms and the five milk performance traits (p>0.05). RH mapping placed -LA on BTA5q21, linked most closely to markers U63110, CC537786 and L10347 (LOD>8.3), which is far distant from the region of the quantitative trait locus (QTL) on bovine chromosome 5 for variation in the milk yield trait. In summary, based on our findings, we eliminated these SNPs from having an effect on milk performance traits.

published proceedings

  • ASIAN-AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCES

author list (cited authors)

  • Zhang, J., Sun, D., Womack, J. E., Zhang, Y. i., Wang, Y., & Zhang, Y.

citation count

  • 4

publication date

  • September 2007