Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in alpha-lactalbumin gene of Indian Jamunapari breed of Capra hircus

Alpha-lactalbumin is a major whey protein found in milk. It influences lactose synthesis by modifying the substrate specificity of galactosyl-transferase, is important to milk synthesis since lactose, an impermeable disaccharide, is the major osmole of milk. The present study was undertaken to detect polymorphism in the full coding region of alpha-lactalbumin at the genetic level and to explore allelic variability of this gene. Samples of Jamunapari breed of goat (n = 50) were included under the present study. Jamunapari is the highest milk producer among local Indian goat breeds. PCR-SSCP of all four exons of alpha-lactalbumin (ALA) revealed a total of 9 gel phenotypes of Jamunapari breed of goat. These were sequenced, analyzed and deposited in GenBank, NCBI (accession nos. EU573193–EU573195). Nucleotide and amino acid variations were searched within breeds of Indian goats and homology between caprine, ovine, bovine, bubaline and human. In the present study we describe for the first time two novel gene variants on the goat alpha-lactalbumin gene exon 4.