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American Dairy Science Association, Journal of Dairy Science, 4(97), p. 1961-1969

DOI: 10.3168/jds.2013-7418

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Glycosylation of κ-casein: Genetic and nongenetic variation and effects on rennet coagulation properties of milk

Journal article published in 2014 by V. Bonfatti, G. Chiarot, P. Carnier ORCID
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

The aims of this study were to investigate genetic and nongenetic variation in the degree of glycosylation of κ-casein (κ-CN) and to estimate the effects of glycosylated (G-κCN) and unglycosylated (U-κCN) κ-CN contents on milk coagulation properties of Simmental cows. Measures of contents of the main casein fractions, G-κCN, and U-κCN, and assessment of genotypes at CSN2, CSN3, and BLG were obtained by reversed-phase HPLC analysis of 2,015 individual milk samples. Content of total κ-CN (κ-CNtot, g/L) was the sum of G-κCN and U-κCN, and the glycosylation degree of κ-CN (GD) was measured as the ratio of G-κCN to κ-CNtot. Rennet coagulation time (RCT) and curd firmness were measured by using a computerized renneting meter. Measures of curd firmness were adjusted for RCT before statistical analysis. Variance components of κ-CNtot, G-κCN, U-κCN, and GD were estimated by Bayesian procedures and univariate linear models that included the class effects of the herd-test-day, parity, days in milk, genotypes at milk protein genes, and animal. These class effects, those of G-κCN, U-κCN, and content of other caseins, and the linear effect of milk pH were accounted for by models investigating the influence of κ-CN glycosylation on coagulation properties. The GD ranged from 22 to 76%, indicating that variation in G-κCN depends on the variation both in κ-CNtot and in the efficiency of κ-CN glycosylation. Genotype CSN3 BB exhibited high G-κCN and U-κCN relative to that of CSN3 AA. Heritability of G-κCN, U-κCN, and GD was high and ranged from 0.46 to 0.56. A large proportion of the additive genetic variation in G-κCN and U-κCN was attributable to influence of CSN and BLG, but these genes did not affect variation in GD, and across-genotypes differences in the trait were small or trivial. Average RCT of the milk class having the highest G-κCN was, on average, 2min (standard deviation 0.5) shorter than that of the lowest class. Conversely, U-κCN and content of other caseins were not associated with any effect on RCT, except for a slight delay in coagulation when U-κCN was very high. Curd firmness increased when the contents of both κ-CN fractions and other caseins increased. This study provides evidence that the positive association between RCT and κ-CN content is exclusively attributable to the glycosylated fraction of the protein. Because exploitable additive genetic variation in G-κCN exists, improvement of κ-CN composition through selective breeding might be an effective way to enhance milk coagulation properties.