Hm. Seyfert et al., DEFINING CANDIDATE GENES FOR MASTITIS RESISTANCE IN CATTLE - THE ROLEOF LACTOFERRIN AND LYSOZYME, Journal of animal breeding and genetics, 113(4-5), 1996, pp. 269-276
We summarize our previous and ongoing efforts to characterize two pote
ntial candidate genes (lactoferrin and lysozyme) for mastitis resistan
ce and examine their relevance for an improvement of udder-health in c
ows. The genes encoding lactoferrin (Lf) and lysozyme (Lys) have been
isolated and characterized at the DNA-sequence level, besides the alph
a S1-casein gene. Starting from these data, two different strategies a
re being persued to analyse their relevance in breeding for mastitis r
esistance. First, based on the molecular characterization of their nat
ural variants Ne are searching for high-performance alleles of both ge
nes in the active breeding population. A first trend for the implicati
on of a Lf-gene variant in mastitis-resistance is seen in the Norwegia
n breeding population. Second, we want to assess experimentally the va
lue of these genes for mastitis resistance under physiological conditi
ons in transgenic experiments, under expression control of the bovine
alpha S1-casein gene promoter. Based upon extensive molecular and cell
biological characterizations of the bovine alpha S1-casein gene and i
ts regulatory elements, a vector cassette has been constructed for tra
nsgene expression in the mammary gland. Postitive expression of a lact
oferrin expressing transgene in the mammary gland of mice has been dem
onstrated.