THE IDENTIFICATION OF KAPPA CASEIN GENOTYPES IN THE HAIR ROOTS OF DAIRY CATTLE

Abstract

Twenty-two dairy cattle, kept at the Demonstration Farm, Department of Animal Husbandry, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, Nakorn Pathom, were genotyped using hair roots, for the Kappa-casein gene, using a Polymerase Chain Reaction - Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. The method for obtaining total DNA was simple, requiring only the digestion of the root of the hair end in a buffer compatible with the subsequent PCR, without any prior purification or extraction step. Two types of alleles, A and B, were in the frequencies of 0.77 and 0.23, espectively. Genotypes AA, AB and BB were demonstrated with the frequencies of 13, 8 and 1 (59.1%, 36.4% and 4.55%), respectively. The results correspond to previous reports in other populations. According to the allele B findings in this herd, it reveals the posibility of a potential breeding program for the proposed trait.