Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10977293 | Journal of Dairy Science | 2013 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
Non-protein-bound oligosaccharides are important bioactive components of cow milk, with potential human-health benefits such as stimulation of the growth of beneficial gut bacteria and defense against pathogens. In bovine milk, the majority of oligosaccharides are sialylated; 3â²-sialyllactose (3â²-N-acetylneuraminyl-d-lactose; 3â²-SL) is the predominant sialylated oligosaccharide, followed by 6â²-sialyllactose (6â²-N-acetylneuraminyl-d-lactose; 6â²-SL). Both 3â²-SL and 6â²-SL have antimicrobial activity. As bovine milk products such as infant formula can be an important component of the human diet, and the concentrations of 3â²-SL and 6â²-SL are lower in bovine milk compared with human milk, we aimed to identify cows that naturally produce higher concentrations of sialyllactose in their milk. Milk from such cows could be used to produce foods with an increased sialyllactose content, potentially providing increased health benefits. We speculated that cows overexpressing 3â²-SL and 6â²-SL would exist at low frequency in the population and, to allow their efficient identification, we developed a novel assay for 3â²-SL and 6â²-SL utilizing flow-injection analysis-mass spectrometry, which could be used for high-throughput analysis of milk samples. We then determined 3â²-SL and 6â²-SL concentrations in milk samples from 15,507 cows from Friesian, Jersey, and Friesian-Jersey crossbred animals. We found 329 cows with concentrations of 3â²-SL or 6â²-SL >2-fold higher than the mean, 26 cows with concentrations of 3â²-SL or 6â²-SL >3-fold higher than the mean, and 1 cow with concentrations of 3â²-SL >4-fold higher than the mean. Although these outliers were observed across the 3 groups of cows, breed had a strong effect on mean 3â²-SL and 6â²-SL concentrations.
Keywords
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Animal Science and Zoology
Authors
Van Kelly, Steve Davis, Sarah Berry, Janine Melis, Richard Spelman, Russell Snell, Klaus Lehnert, David Palmer,