Caprine αs1-Casein Polymorphism: Characterisation of A, B, E and F Variants by Means of Various Biochemical and Molecular Techniques

Abstract

Considering a wide interest for the characterisation of caprine αs1-casein variants and a large number of differently equipped laboratories, the objective of this study was to analyse and compare characteristics of caprine αs1-casein variants by means of various biochemical and molecular techniques. The most frequent caprine αs1-casein variants (A, B, E and F) were characterized by employing electrophoretic protein separation analyses (capillary electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, and sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis), chromatographic analysis (reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography) as well as DNA analyses (ASA and real-time polymerase chain reaction approach). Further, we stressed weak and strong points for each method applied and provided information for the optimal and complementary use of those methods with respect to time, resolution and costs.

Keywords

• Capra hircus
• αs1-casein
• electrophoresis
• RP-HPLC
• real-time PCR