Vol. 11, Special Issue 10 (2022)

The milk proteins in cattle are controlled by co-dominant autosomal genes in accordance with Mendelian law of inheritance. The present research work was undertaken to analyze the Kappa Casein gene of Malnad Gidda and Hallikar breeds of cattle. A forward (JK5) and a reverse (JK3) primer were used to amplify 350 bp fragment of kappa casein gene. Denaturation, primer extension and annealing were carried out at 94 °C, 72 °C & 58.2 °C, respectively. The number of cycles was kept constant at 34. The amplified product was approximately of 350 bp in length with no variation in size either within or between the breeds studied. The PCR products were sequenced and were subjected to pairwise alignment on online EBI (Europian Bioinformatics Institute) tool. It revealed 83.2% homology between kappa casein gene sequence of Hallikar and Malnad Gidda breed. There were 27 base deletions and 13 base insertions involving all the four bases in Malnad Gidda when compared with Hallikar. Transversion of bases C/G was also observed at positions 9 and 180. Study revealed significant difference in the nucleotide sequence of kappa casein gene between Hallikar and Malnad Gidda breeds.