Prl and B4GALT-1 gene polymorphism and their association with milk production traits in crossbred cattle of Kerala

Abstract

The main objective of present study was to explore the genetic variation in exon 3 of PRL (185 bp) and exon-2 of B4GALT-1 (256 bp) locus and analyze their associations with milk production traits. The study was conducted on 200 crossbred cattle distributed in different farms under Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University and field centres of ICAR-FPT scheme, Mannuthy. Polymorphism of both the genes was detected by Single Strand Confirmation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP). Similar banding pattern were noticed in exon-3 region of PRL, population was found to be monomorphic, indicating conserved nature of this fragment in the screened crossbred cattle population of Kerala. Two unique band patterns were detected in 256 bp fragment of B4GALT-1. Sequencing revealed a nonsynonymous single nucleotide variation in c.521T>C in exon 2 of B4GALT-1, resulted in an amino acid substitution of methionine to threonine due to a codon change of ATG to ACG. Different genetic variants of B4GALT-1 was significantly associated with 305 days milk yield and protein percent. The study indicates the existence of genetic variability in B4GALT-1 gene on crossbred cattle population of Kerala and suggests a scope of considering genetic variants of B4GALT-1 gene in selection of cattle for higher milk production.