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Archives Animal Breeding 2019Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play a role in a wide variety of physiological processes. They are produced by a series of desaturation and elongation reactions....
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play a role in a wide variety of physiological processes. They are produced by a series of desaturation and elongation reactions. -6-desaturase is a membrane-bound enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of -linolenic acid (C18:3 -3) and linoleic acid (C18:2 -6) to stearidonic acid (18:4 -3) and -linolenic acid (18:3 -6). It is encoded by the gene located on bovine chromosome 29. The aim of this study was to identify a single nucleotide polymorphism in the gene and to determine possible associations with milk fatty acid composition in two breeds of dairy cattle, i.e., Jersey and Polish Holstein-Friesian. Direct DNA sequencing revealed the presence of an A-to-G substitution in intron 3 of the gene (rs209202414). Both populations were genotyped with an appropriate PCR-RFLP assay. The following genotype distributions were observed: for Jerseys, 0.24, 0.63, and 0.13; for Polish Holstein-Friesians, 0.17, 0.40, and 0.43. In Jerseys, statistically significant relationships were found between the genotypes and the following milk fatty acids: lauric ( ), behenic ( ), lignoceric ( ), oleic ( ), eicosatrienoic ( ), and docosadienoic ( ). In Polish Holstein-Friesian cows, significant associations were observed for erucic ( ) and docosahexaenoic ( ) acids. The study indicated the A-to-G substitution (rs209202414) in the bovine gene as a potential genetic marker for fatty acid composition in cattle milk.
PubMed: 31807666
DOI: 10.5194/aab-62-547-2019