Abstract:
Alpha-lactalbumin plays a key role in lactose synthesis in the mammary glands of domestic animals. This study evaluated
Hair (188), Saanen (82), Kilis (63), and Honamli (183) goat breeds, with the primary goal of investigating DNA polymorphism of Mva I
RFLP at exon 3 of the alpha-lactalbumin gene. Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP)
was employed to genotype a total of 516 goats for Mva I polymorphism of alpha-lactalbumin. In the breeds that were studied, digestion
of the amplification product with the Mva I restriction enzyme revealed 2 alleles (A1 and A2) and 3 genotypes (A1A1, A1A2, and
A2A2). Allelic frequencies for Hair, Honamli, Saanen, and Kilis breeds were found to be 0.87, 0.92, 0.87, and 0.85, respectively, for the
A1 allele and 0.13, 0.08, 0.13, and 0.15, respectively, for the A2 allele. None of the studied breeds exhibited significant deviation from
Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Consequently, this study shed light on the polymorphism of alpha-lactalbumin in 4 goat breeds. Another
finding of this study was the presence of genetic polymorphism at the alpha-lactalbumin gene in Kilis and Honamli goat breeds, a fact
that was not known previously.
