It is well known that DNA methylation in gene promoter regions inhibits gene transcription and that tissue-specific gene expression is partially under the control of this transcription regulatory mechanism. In this study, bovine mammary gland tissues were collected from individual animals in lactating and non-lactating stages to investigate the DNA methylation patterns in the kappa-casein gene and alpha-lactalbumin gene core promoter regions using the bisulphite treatment in combination with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequencing. Different methylation status of each sample was classified into three categories, namely methylation at known transcription factor binding domains, methylation at core promoter non-binding domains and the absence of cytosine methylation. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to quantify the transcription levels of the kappa-casein and alpha-lactalbumin genes from the collected samples. A comparative method was used and fold-change values were calculated based on the comparison of the normalized threshold values of samples from different physiological stages as well as on various methylation patterns observed in their core promoter regions. Statistical analyses showed that the expressions of the kappa-casein and alpha-lactalbumin genes were significantly different in lactating and non-lactating mammary gland tissues. The methylation observed in the core promoter region of bovine alpha-lactalbumin gene was found to be associated with its gene expression. On the other hand, the methylation found in the core promoter region of bovine kappa-casein gene did not have any effect on its gene transcript levels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.116076 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Wang, Xiaoliang, 1980- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Animal Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002838187, proquestno: AAIMR67015, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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