Milk somatic cell DNA isolation and characterization of κ-casein gene in Halari donkey milk
Prashant Singh,
Anuradha Bhardwaj,
Varij Nayan,
Ram Avatar Legha,
Yash Pal,
Sonali Soni,
Shiv Kumar Giri,
T.K. Bhattacharya
Affiliations
Prashant Singh
ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India
Anuradha Bhardwaj
ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India; Corresponding author. ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Sirsa Road, Hisar-125001, Haryana, India.
Varij Nayan
ICAR- Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India
Ram Avatar Legha
ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India
Yash Pal
ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India
Sonali Soni
ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India; Department of Biotechnology (SBAS), Maharaja Agrasen University, Baddi 174103 (Solan) HP, India
Shiv Kumar Giri
Department of Biotechnology (SBAS), Maharaja Agrasen University, Baddi 174103 (Solan) HP, India
T.K. Bhattacharya
ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar 125001 (Haryana), India
Halari donkey breed is one of the indigenous breeds of India and its population is rapidly decreasing. The Jenny milk is more similar to human milk, exhibits a wide range of probiotic diversity and hypo-allergenicity, especially among infants suffering from cow and buffalo milk protein allergy. Some studies indicated low levels of κ-casein fraction of casein protein in donkey milk. The k-casein gene was not amplified from the DNA derived from the milk somatic cells of Halari donkeys. The Halari donkey milk has low somatic cells count. We report the first isolation of DNA from milk somatic cells of Halari donkeys with subsequent characterization of k-casein gene. Through our work, we showed that the milk somatic cells can be used as a non-invasive source for DNA isolation towards molecular studies. It also proved the presence of k-casein gene in Halari donkey milk by its amplification from isolated DNA.