Genetic diversity and population structure of Sicilian sheep breeds using microsatellite markers
Abstract Genetic diversity studies in domestic animals aim at evaluating genetic variation within and across breeds mainly for conservation purposes. In Sicily, dairy sheep production represents an important resource for hilly and mountain areas economy. Their milk is used for the production of traditional raw milk cheeses, sometimes protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses. In some cases, the quality of these products is linked to a specific breed, i.e. mono-breed labelled cheeses and it is therefore important to be able to distinguish the milk of a breed from that of others, in order to guarantee both the consumer and the breed itself. In order to investigate the genetic structure an…
Molecular mechanisms of primary and secondary mucosal immunity using avian infectious bronchitis virus as a model system
Although mucosal immune responses are critical for protection of hosts from clinical illness and even mortality caused by mucosal pathogens, the molecular mechanism of mucosal immunity, which is independent of systemic immunity, remains elusive. To explore the mechanistic basis of mucosal protective immunity, gene transcriptional profiling in mucosal tissues was evaluated after the primary and secondary immunization of animals with an attenuated avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a prototype of Coronavirus and a well-characterized mucosal pathogen. Results showed that a number of innate immune factors including toll-like receptors (TLRs), retinoic-acid-inducible gene-1 (RIG-1), type I…
Polymorphisms of beta-lactoglobulin promoter region in three Sicilian goat breeds
Several beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) polymorphisms have been described within the proximal promoter region and coding region of the caprine gene, although no genetic variants affecting the protein amino acid composition and/or expression level have been characterized so far. Binding sites for several transcription factors (TFs) are present in the BLG promoter region. The aims of this work were to sequence the full-length promoter region of three Sicilian goat breeds in order to identify polymorphisms, analyze the identified haplotypes, search for differences between breeds for the presence of polymorphisms in this gene region, search for putative TFs binding sites, and check if polymorphisms la…
Parentage verification of Valle del Belice dairy sheep using multiplex microsatellite panel
Abstract The aim of this work was to develop and evaluate a PCR based microsatellite markers multiplex system for parentage verification of Sicilian Valle del Belice dairy sheep. A total of 85 samples of blood and hair were collected and genotyped for 24 microsatellite markers in multiplex electrophoresis runs. A total of 269 alleles were detected across the 24 loci investigated. The PIC considering all loci was equal to 0.736, showing that this microsatellite panel was very polymorphic and highly informative. A parentage test was performed on 64 families generated with multiple sires. Results indicated 20.3% and 29.7% misidentification rates for females and males, respectively. In 8 cases,…
Relationship between beta lactoglobulin and subclinical mastitis in Valle del Belice sheep breed
The objective of the following research was to determine the effect of LGB genotypes on subclinical mastitis in Valle del Belice dairy sheep. Ewes were classified as affected or not by subclinical mastitis within a lactation based on i) a positive culture in one of the test-days and ii) more than 750,000 somatic cells. Generalized linear mixed models were fitted to assess the significance of LGB genotypes on MTB and MTC. The LGB genotypes significantly affected MTB (p=0.0387), and showed a tendency on MTC (p=0.1104). Least square means showed that in the analysis for MTB, individuals with genotypes BB and AB had a higher frequency of subclinical mastitis. Moreover, the least square differen…
A deterministic simulation study of embryo marker-assisted selection for age at first calving in Nellore (Bos indicus) beef cattle
Submitted by Guilherme Lemeszenski (guilherme@nead.unesp.br) on 2013-08-22T19:04:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 S1415-47572007000400008.pdf: 85300 bytes, checksum: 7422029b120457123fb366c1bd71e758 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T19:04:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 S1415-47572007000400008.pdf: 85300 bytes, checksum: 7422029b120457123fb366c1bd71e758 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-01-01 Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-30T20:08:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1415-47572007000400008.pdf: 85300 bytes, checksum: 7422029b120457123fb366c1bd71e758 (MD5) S1415-47572007000400008.pdf.txt: 39461 bytes, checksum: 2796161439379a834535eeaff8aac2ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-01-01 Submitt…
Identification of SNPs in the promoter of β-lactoglobulin gene in three Sicilian goat breeds
The aim of this work was to sequence the full-length promoter region of the caprine β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) gene in three Sicilian goat breeds (Girgentana, Maltese, and Derivata di Siria), in order to identify polymorphisms, to search for transcription factors (TFs) sites, and to check if polymorphisms found lay within TFs binding sites. The promoter region of β-lg gene in Sicilian goat breeds showed high level of polymorphism due to the presence of 31 SNPs. Binding sites for several TFs were found within the goat β-lg promoter and within regions conserved between ovine and caprine species. Two SNPs were detected within TFs binding sites, such as MPBF and NF-I. Further st…