Abstract
Kappa-casein as a mammalian milk protein is involved in a several important physiological processes and it’s about 80% of the total protein in cow milk. This study aimed at genotyping bovine Kappa casein (CSN3) in two indigenous Nigerian cattle populations and to determine the frequency distribution of Kappa casein variants as detected across the animals examined and their association with the body measurement. DNA was extracted from 100 blood samples of 50 White Fulani and 50 N’dama cattle for identification and genotyping of kappa-casein gene by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) test using HindIII restriction endonucleases. The PCR products of the specific primer K-F and K-R for the two cattle breeds give 530bp specific band. Digestion of 530bp amplified products of White Fulani and N’dama by restriction endonuclease HindIII generated three fragments of 530-, 370- and 160- bp each for the two breeds. Results of the cuts with this enzyme show the presence of genotypes AA, AB and BB in the samples. These findings suggest that BB genotype could be selected for increase body conformation and protein content of milk.
 Olanrewaju, B. M. | Department of Animal Production and Health, The Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria.
Highlights
Casein is one of the members of milk proteins family that exists in different molecular forms and is the main protein present in the cow’s milk (Alipanah et al, 2005)
Mean values of body measurement studied exhibited sexual dimorphism in favour of Female N’dama cattle, this may be due to physiological condition of the animals as it was not taken into consideration during the conduct of this research work, Females were significantly (P≤0.05) superior to males in most of the body measurement taken, this observation is in line with submission of various workers ((Adeyinka and Mohammed, 2006; Yunusa et al, 2013)
Whereas for the white Fulani cattle studied, the males were significantly (p≤0.05) superior to females in most of the vital body measurement taken and this observation was contrary to the work submitted by Ndumu et al (2008) and Seifemichael et al (2014) and this condition may be due to the physiological condition of the male animals which are known to be more muscular
Summary
Casein is one of the members of milk proteins family that exists in different molecular forms and is the main protein present in the cow’s milk (Alipanah et al, 2005). It is a member of phosphoproteins family (αS1, αS2, β, κ). The protein ingested is divided into a non-dissolved peptide (Para kappa-casein) and a soluble hydrophilic glycopeptide (caseinomacropeptide) (Ageitos et al, 2006). Caseinomacropeptide has been identified to be responsible for higher digestion efficiency, prevention of newborn hypersensitivity to ingested proteins and inhibition of gastric pathogens (Ageitos et al, 2006). Kappa-casein is responsible for the formation, stabilization and aggregation of the casein colloidal aggregate thereby changing the manufacturing properties and digestibility of milk (Jann, 2004)
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