Gene expression profiling of sheep mammary tissue using oligo-array: preliminary results

Abstract

In animal breeding it is relevant to identify the genetic and molecular basis of economically important traits, for this reason it is very helpful the identification of the genetic polymorphisms involved in different level of expression of a trait. In the last years the candidate genes approach has been successfully used: on thisbasis, for example, interesting results have been reached, especially for the study of genes codifying for milk proteins (Jenness, 1974). There are two different approaches to perform this kind of study: a structural one, which determines the sequence of the studied genes looking for mutations involved in the variability of the gene structure and/or in its expression level, and a functional one, which directly investigates the difference in gene expression.......

Keywords

• mammary gland, sheep, oligo-array.