Analysis of MUC1 gene in goat

MUC1 is a mucin-type glycoprotein; unlike secreted mucins it is a membrane component. During lactation it is present on the apical surface of the mammary cells as well as on the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM). In man and cattle extracellular domain shows a twenty-amino acid repeat rich in sites for O-glycosylation (serines and threonines). The motif is tandemly repeated a variable number of times in individual molecules giving rise to a VNTR polymorphism. The MUC1 structure and location suggest that associations between the molecular mass of variants and lactation traits as well as health traits may exist (Patton et al., 1995; Pallesen et al., 2001; Rasero et al., 2002).....