Identification of Novel Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Promoter III of the Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase-alpha Gene in Goats Affecting Milk Production Traits

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase-alpha (ACACA) is the major regulatory enzyme of fatty acid biosynthesis. We have sequenced a fragment of Promoter III of the ovine ACACA gene in 211 goats of 5 breeds. The caprine sequence showed a high nucleotide identity (99%) with the ovine. We have identified 3 novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that fall in the core sequence of putative binding sites of transcription factors and have lower allele frequency than the wild type in all breeds. We evaluated the allele substitution effect of the SNPs on milk traits in the Saanen and the Local Grey breeds. Results from this study show that the mutations are associated with fat yield.