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A MvaI PCR-RFLP detecting a silent allele at the goat α-lactalbumin locus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2003

Gianfranco Cosenza
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche ed Ispezione degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Portici, Italy
Daniela Gallo
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche ed Ispezione degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Portici, Italy
Rosa Illario
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche ed Ispezione degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Portici, Italy
Paola di Gregorio
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Animali, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy
Carmela Senese
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Animali, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy
Lino Ferrara
Affiliation:
IABBAM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Napoli, Italy
Luigi Ramunno
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche ed Ispezione degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Portici, Italy

Abstract

Alpha-lactalbumin (α-la), a calcium metalloprotein, is one of the major serum-proteins in ruminant milk (Jenness, 1982) and induces lactose synthesis in the mammary gland by interacting with the enzyme UDP-galactosyltransferase, giving rise to the heterodimer enzyme lactose synthase (Ebner & Brodbeck, 1968; Kuhn, 1983). The goat α-la transcription unit (LALBA), located on chromosome 5 (Hayes et al. 1993), is organized in 4 exons varying in length from 75 nucleotides (3rd exon) to 329 nucleotides (4th exon) coding for a 123-amino acid polypeptide chain (Vilotte et al. 1991). According to the strong similarity between bovine α-la (Vilotte et al. 1987) and human lysozyme (similar molecular weight, the same number of S-S bonds, identical N and C terminal residues; Peters et al. 1989), it has been proposed that both genes arose from a common ancestor (Vilotte et al. 1991).

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research 2003

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