Identification of two paralogous caprine CD36 genes that display highly divergent mRNA expression profiles

The CD36 molecule plays a pivotal role in a variety of immunological and cellular processes, including pathogen recognition, inflammation and apoptosis. Herein, we demonstrate that this gene is duplicated in goats, with two copies (CD36 and CD36-like) that display highly divergent mRNA expression profiles. In this way, CD36 mRNA is mostly expressed in the adipose tissue and heart whilst CD36-like mRNA shows a high expression in the liver. We have also found evidence of the presence of two paralogous CD36 and CD36-like genes in the bovine genome, suggesting that CD36 duplication took place before goat-cattle radiation, i.e. at least 20 MYR ago. Finally, we have characterized the polymorphism of the coding regions of the goat CD36 and CD36-like genes. In doing so, we have identified one synonymous polymorphism at the CD36-like gene (c.390A>C) that displays a significant association (P = 0.04) with milk somatic cell count, a parameter often used to diagnose mastitis in domestic ruminants.