STUDYING SOME GENES AFFECTING MILK PRODUCTIVITY IN EGYPTIAN BUFFALOES

Abstract

ABSTRACT The future bio-economy of dairy industry relies on the identification of an affordable approach for increasing milk production and its constituents. Egyptian buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) contributes by about 50% of total milk production in Egypt, therefore it is considered as an essential dairy animal. This study aimed to differentiate between high and low milk producer buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) using cDNA-AFLP, MC4R gene, microsatellite and SCoT markers. The results of cDNA-AFLP showed a great difference between high and low milk producers, which clarify that difference in gene expression results in different productivety. MCR4 gene primer resulted in a band of 800bp, that didn’t show any SNPs consequently, no difference between high and low milk producers. The six microsatellite primers showed bands of 350, 377, 496, 247, 262 and 280 bp, where three of which were digested by restriction enzyme. SCoT results of bulked samples showed unique bands that were sequenced and aligned to Bubalus bubalis (taxid: 89462) sequences. Alignment results showed similarity to the following encoding genes, Class V myosin, Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 D4 and gacyl-phosphatase 2 (ACYP2), which play a crucial role in organelle trafficking and many pathways, that may affect milk production traits. These results showed that cDNA-AFLP and SCoT markers were better than the other methods in clarifying the difference between high and low milk producing traits in Egyptian buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).