Characterization of genetic polymorphism in the goat beta-lactoglobulin gene.

Two new variants have been detected and characterized for the goat beta-lactoglobulin gene at the cDNA level and confirmed at the genomic level. The two polymorphisms are located on exon 7 of the gene. One of the polymorphic sites is produced by a single nucleotide substitution in position +4601, allowing a polymerase chain reaction--restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) genotyping procedure to be developed using SacII restriction enzyme. The other polymorphic position contains a 10 bp long insertion at position +4641 that can be detected by capillary electrophoresis of the PCR product amplified with a fluorescent primer. The association of these two polymorphisms was also investigated, resulting in the description of two new alleles. Both of these contained the point mutation at the SacII site, with or without the 10 bp insertion at position +4641. The distribution of these new polymorphisms was studied in a population of males of four different goat breeds. The gene frequencies for these variants were similar in Spanish and French breeds.