Cytogenetic mapping of 25 goat mammary gland Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs)

Today, there is a shift towards a positional candidate approach in the mole cular identification of genes. This study reports on an Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) mapping initiative in goats, based on sequence information gath ered from a previous mammary gland cDNA systematic sequencing project. A to tal of 25 novel genes was localised cytogenetically on 16 goat chromosomes. Six of these ESTs were found to map to cattle milk QTL regions. These resu lts made it possible to assess the use of ESTs as a shortcut to the molecul ar identification of some QTLs and as a valuable tool for comparative mappi ng.