Protein polymorphisms in the blood of German improved fawn and Boer goats

Abstract Polymorphisms of five biochemical systems (adenosine deaminase, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, phosphoglucomutase, transferrin) were examined in the blood of two goat breeds using starch gel, agarose gel and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Three different phenotypes could be separated in adenosine deaminase for the first time. However, our separation method has to be improved concerning differentiation of A and B bands. In alkaline phosphatase one band was found in addition to the phenotypes already known. In amylase no polymorphism could be found within the breeds. Nevertheless, the phenotypes observed in the two breeds differed in the way that in Boer goats the faster and in German Improved Fawn goats the slower migrating phenotype was found. In transferrin the three phenotypes AA, AB, BB were found in both breeds with the corresponding alleles Tf A and Tf B . Methods for alkaline phosphatase, amylase and transferrin are suitable to investigate polymorphic systems in goats on a large scale. In phosphoglucomutase the PGM-1 locus, which has not been described in goats yet, was found to be polymorphic with up to four bands. Additional experiments for PGM should clear up the mode of inheritance in goats.