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Proteomics and Mammary Gland Research in Dairy Species

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Proteomics in Domestic Animals: from Farm to Systems Biology

Abstract

Proteomics has over the last decade become a technology that has been used more and more frequently in the study of mammary gland function in health and disease. There is now considerable evidence that the potential of this advanced analytical technology is broadly applied in mammary research and biology and starting to fulfil its potential. Proteomics has widely been used for several purposes. The first studies refer to the characterization of the mammary gland proteome, an objective achieved in the most important dairy species, cow and goat. Proteomics was also used to address the effects of genotype on the mammary gland proteome by contrasting, for instance, different breeds of cattle. Surprisingly, in bovines, proteomics has had limited use when comparing different nutritional levels. Proteomics has also been widely used as a tool to characterize the lactation cycle in cattle with studies related to morphology and milk secretion, among others.

Mastitis is the economically most important disease of dairy cows, and there has been substantial proteomics-based investigation of the change following infection. Both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms cause mastitis and milk from udders infected with either species causing substantial change to the milk proteome. High abundance milk protein such as caseins, β-lactoglobin and α-lactalbumin are reduced, while others such as albumin and IgG are increased. Recent advances in proteomic analysis of milk from dairy cows with mastitis have allowed over 290 milk proteins to be identified as they change in concentration following infection. Consistent results across a number of varied investigations have shown that proteins such as haptoglobin, cathelicidins and peptidoglycan recognition protein are among the most up-regulated components in milk during this disease, while fatty acid binding protein was consistently down-regulated.

Proteomics has been extensively used in other species including dairy goats, buffalo or yaks and will likely increase in the near future, expanding, for instance, to wild mammal species. Finally, quantitative proteomics in particular is at the cusp of providing substantially greater insight into mammary gland metabolism and phenotypic alterations in the physiology of lactation and in disease processes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://faostat3.fao.org/download/Q/QL/E (accessed Oct 2016).

Abbreviations

1D:

One dimension

2D:

Two dimension

2DE:

Two-dimensional electrophoresis

DIGE:

Differential in-gel electrophoresis

ESI:

Electrospray ionization

iTRAQ:

Isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation

RPLC:

Reversed phase liquid chromatography

LC:

Liquid chromatography

MALDI TOF/TOF:

Matrix assisted desorption ionization-time of flight

MS:

Mass spectrometry

NMR:

Nucleic magnetic resonance

QConCAT:

Concatenated peptides

SCC:

Somatic cell count

TLC:

Teat canal lining

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Acknowledgements

Author AM Almeida acknowledges funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Lisbon, Portugal) through the research project PTDC/CVT/116499/2010—Lactation and milk production in Goat (Capra hircus): identifying molecular markers underlying adaptation to seasonal weight loss. The authors are members of COST actions FA1002—Proteomics in Farm Animals and FA1308—Dairycare to whom network funding is acknowledged.

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Correspondence to André M. de Almeida .

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de Almeida, A.M., Eckersall, P.D. (2018). Proteomics and Mammary Gland Research in Dairy Species. In: de Almeida, A., Eckersall, D., Miller, I. (eds) Proteomics in Domestic Animals: from Farm to Systems Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69682-9_13

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