Identification of differential methylome signatures of white pigmented skin patches in Nili Ravi buffalo of India.

The DNA methylation events mark a major epigenetic change in the genome, reflecting non-genetic disease developments and varied phenotypes. The water buffalo is a dairy production animal with wide agro-climatic distribution in India. Breed-wise the coat color of water buffalo varies from ash-gray to jet black. A typical pigmentation pattern is found in one of the breeds of North India, Nili Ravi, with variedly distributed white patches. The DNA methylation pattern could potentially reveal the epigenetic factors responsible for the pigmentation patterns. To address this question, the DNA isolated from the skin tissues of Nili Ravi with varied white pigmentation and black Murrah buffaloes was subjected to reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. DNA methylation analysis revealed, 68.44%, 63.39%, and 47.94% of the promoter regions were hypermethylated in Nili Ravi over-white versus Murrah, Nili Ravi under-white versus Murrah, and Nili Ravi under-white versus Nili Ravi over-white, respectively. Major genes identified to be differentially methylated among over-white and under-white skin tissues in Nili Ravi included TBX2, SNAI2, HERC2, and CITED1. Overall the results have indicated differential methylation patterns to be potentially involved in hyper or hypopigmentation in Nili Ravi and Murrah buffaloes.

Functional milk proteome analysis of genetically diverse goats from different agro climatic regions.

Goat milk, a choice of substitution to mother's milk for its composition, fulfils nutritional requirement of infants, pregnant mothers and older people. The present study was carried out to unravel the milk proteome profiles from geographically and genetically diverse goat breeds by gel based 2DE and nLC-MS/MS. A total of 1307 functional proteins comprising casein and other low abundance proteins were identified. Gene annotations revealed that the majority of the proteins were involved in binding function, catalytic activity and structural molecules and localised in nucleus and membrane. The distinguished proteins were involved in 144 KEGG pathways in information processing, metabolism, cellular process, organismal systems and diseases. The large number of proteins and peptides including bioactive peptides were reported from goat milk from diverse agro-climatic regions of India indicating their significant potential for human health applications. SIGNIFICANCE: Goat milk in India is used in various Ayurvedic formulations to treat a number of ailments and allergies as well as for nutraceutical formulations. The study identifies milk protein variants both at protein and DNA level and subsequent identification of proteins by 2DE and nLC-MS/MS resulting in a proteome comprising of 1307 proteins. The specific proteins and peptides having significant role in immune regulation, disease pathways, cellular growth and metabolism have been identified. The results contribute to goat milk protein and peptide database which is very limited. We identified proteins for specific functional categories and associated them with different pathways for studying functional diversity of goat milk proteins. The proteins and peptides identified can be used for multiple human health application.