Polymorphism of three milk protein genes in Mexican Jersey cattle

The objective was to estimate the allelic and genotypic frequencies, genetic diversity and polymorphic information content for the beta-casein, kappa-casein and beta-lactoglobulin genes. Blood and frozen semen samples were collected from 453 Jersey individuals registered by the Mexican Jersey Cattle Association. Twenty eight breed specific SNP primers for whole genes were used. The B allele of kappa-casein had higher frequency (0.69) than the A (0.26) and E (0.05). For beta-lactoglobulin, the highest frequency was for B (0.72), followed by A and C alleles (0.26 and 0.02, respectively). The beta-casein allele with the highest frequency was A(2) (0.71), followed by A(1) (0.19), A(3) (0.05), B (0.04) and C (0.01). The average genetic diversity (He) was 0.53. The average locus effective allele number was 1.79. These results indicate a high allelic diversity for kappa-casein, beta-casein and beta-lactoglobulin that could be included in breeding programs in the population studied, aimed to improve the milk quality traits of economic importance. (C) 2014 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.