Advances in dairy Research
Open Access

Abstract

Effect of SNPs in Prolactin Promoter on Milk Traits in Egyptian Buffalo

Mohammad Abu El- Magd, Abeer Gamal Zaki, Khaled Abdelalem Kahilo, Mohamed El-Sayd Barakat and Ibrahim Fatouh Hassan

Prolactin (PRL) plays a crucial role in the initiation and maintenance of lactation in animals. It is a potential quantitative trait locus and genetic marker of production traits in dairy cattle. However, no SNPs was detected in, and no association studies was conducted on, PRL gene in Egyptian buffalo. Therefore, this study aims to detect PRL gene polymorphisms and to study their effect on in Egyptian water buffalo. A PCR product of 245 bp, including part of the promoter of PRL was amplified using PCR and subsequently, SSCP and nucleotide sequencing were conducted to identify its different allelic patterns in Egyptian buffaloes. Our results revealed presence of a novel T72C SNP in the PRL promoter with two genotypes (TC, CC). Chi-square test indicated presence of genetic disequilibrium with respect to studied variations and revealed significant difference in distribution of variants among buffaloes. Genetic diversity parameter showed moderate degree of polymorphism. The two genotypes (TC, CC) did not show association with milk traits (milk yield, fat%, protein%, and lactose%, solid %) in Egyptian buffaloes. We conclude that no significant difference in milk traits between Egyptian buffaloes have TC or CC genotypes and so breeders should not depend on this SNP (alone) in their selection for dairy animals.