Association between microsatellite markers and milk production traits in Egyptian buffaloes

Abstract

The objectives were to evaluate polymorphism in ten microsatellite markers and to demonstrate their association with milk production traits in the Egyptian buffaloes, based on the cross-species transferability of microsatellites from cattle to buffalo. A total of 17 439 daily milk records from the first five lactations were subjected to analyses, in which records from 5 to 290 days in milk were only included. The analysis revealed that eight out of the ten bovine markers analyzed were polymorphic. The means of the number of alleles, effective number of alleles, and fixation index within markers were 4.125, 2.479, and 0.062, respectively. The means of the observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.491 and 0.527 per marker, respectively. The eight polymorphic microsatellites (BM1706, BMS711, BM143, BM415, BM6438, ETH131, BM1443, ETH2) showed significant (P < 0.001) associations with average daily milk yield deviation. Protein percentage was significantly associated with microsatellites BM6438 (P < 0.01) and ETH131 (P < 0.001). Only marker BM415 had a significant (P < 0.05) influence on protein yield. None of the analyzed markers revealed significant effect on fat yield and percentage. The results obtained support future application of the polymorphic microsatellites for detailed studies of the Egyptian buffalo genome.