Effect of alpha-lactalbumin gene polymorphism on milk production traits in water buffalo

Abstract

A genetic study was conducted to elucidate the effect of alpha-Lactalbumin (α-LA) gene polymorphism on milk production traits involving total milk yield and daily milk yield during first lactation in two breeds of water buffaloes namely, Murrah and Bhadawari. Single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) was carried out to explore genetic polymorphism present at this locus. For this study, exon 1 region of α-LA was analyzed. Finally, polymorphism data was associated with milk production traits by employing least square analysis. In Murrah buffalo, five genotypes such as AB, BB, BC, CC and CD and four alleles A, B, C and D were detected whereas in Bhadawari buffalo two genotypes namely, AB and BC and three alleles namely, A, B and C were found. Genotypes showed significant effects (p≤0.05) on total milk yield and daily milk yield in Bhadawari buffalo but had non-significant effects on these traits in Murrah buffalo.