Polymorphisms of the IL-17A Gene Influence Milk Production Traits and Somatic Cell Score in Chinese Holstein Cows

Sahar Ghulam Mohyuddin; Yan Liang; Wei Ni; Abdelaziz Adam Idriss Arbab; Huiming Zhang; Mingxun Li; Zhangping Yang; Niel A Karrow; Yongjiang Mao

doi:10.3390/bioengineering9090448

Polymorphisms of the IL-17A Gene Influence Milk Production Traits and Somatic Cell Score in Chinese Holstein Cows

Bioengineering (Basel). 2022 Sep 7;9(9):448. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering9090448.

Authors

Sahar Ghulam Mohyuddin^{1

2}, Yan Liang^{1

2}, Wei Ni¹, Abdelaziz Adam Idriss Arbab^{1

3}, Huiming Zhang¹, Mingxun Li¹, Zhangping Yang^{1

2}, Niel A Karrow⁴, Yongjiang Mao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Animal Genetics, Breeding, Reproduction and Molecular Design of Jiangsu Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.
² Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety of Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.
³ Biomedical Research Institute, Darfur University College, Nyala 63313, Sudan.
⁴ Center for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.

Abstract

The cow’s milk production characteristics are a significant economic indicator in the livestock industry. Serum cytokines such as interleukin-17 (IL-17) may be potential indicators for bovine mastitis concerning the milk somatic cell count (SCC) and somatic cell score (SCS). The current study aims to find previously undiscovered single nucleotide polymorphisms in the bovine (IL-17A) gene and further investigates their associations with milk production traits in Chinese Holstein cows. Twenty Chinese Holstein cows were randomly chosen from six farms in Jiangsu Province, China. The DNA was extracted from selected samples of bloods for PCR amplification Sequence analyses were used to find SNPs in the bovine (IL-17A) gene. The discovered five SNPs are g-1578A>G, g-1835G>A, and g-398T>A in the 5′UTR; g3164T>C and g3409G>C in the exon region. The genotyping of Holstein cows (n = 992) was performed based on Sequenom Mass ARRAY and SNP data. The connection between SNPs, milk production variables, and the somatic cell score was investigated using the least-squares method. Based on the results, SNP g-398T>A had a significant linkage disequilibrium with g3164T>C. SNPs were found to have significant (p < 0.05) correlations with the test-day milk yield. In conclusion, IL-17A affects cow’s milk production traits significantly.

Keywords: Chinese Holstein cows; IL-17A; milk production traits; single nucleotide polymorphism.

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972555), Natural Science Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (18KJA230003), Jiangsu Province “Six talent peaks” Project Funding (NY-093), and Modern Agricultural Development Project of Jiangsu Province (2019-SJ-039-08-04).