Sufficient amino acid (AA) transport is essential to ensure the normal physiological function and growth of growing animals. The processes of AA sensing and transport in humans and murine animals, but rarely in goats, have been arousing great interest recently. This study was conducted to investigate the messenger RNA expression patterns of lysophosphatidic acid receptor 5 (LPAR5), guanine nucleotide-binding protein α-transducing 3 (GNAT3) and important partial AA transporters in digestive tracts, metabolic organs and muscles of growing goats. The results showed that these genes were widely expressed in goats, and had different expression patterns. LPAR5, GNAT3, solute carrier (SLC38A2), SLC7A7, SLC7A1 and SLC3A1 were rarely expressed in the rumen, but were highly expressed in the abomasum and intestine which are the main sites of AA absorption. GNAT3, SLC38A1, SLC38A2, SLC6A19, SLC7A7 and SLC7A1 showed comparatively high expression in the pancreas and the vital digestive glands, and the relatively high expression of these nine genes were noted in the tibialis posterior, the active muscle in energy metabolism. The correlation analysis showed that there were certain positive correlation among most genes. The current results indicate that the AA sensing and transport occur extensively in the abomasum and small intestine, metabolic organs and muscle tissues of ruminants, and that related genes have tissue specificity.

Goats have played a key role as source of nourishment for humans in their expansion all over the world in long land and sea trips. This has guaranteed a place for this species in the important and rapid episode of livestock expansion triggered by Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in the late 1400s. The aims of this study are to provide a comprehensive perspective on genetic diversity in American goat populations and to assess their origins and evolutionary trajectories. This was achieved by combining data from autosomal neutral genetic markers obtained in more than two thousand samples that encompass a wide range of Iberian, African and Creole goat breeds. In general, even though Creole populations differ clearly from each other, they lack a strong geographical pattern of differentiation, such that populations of different admixed ancestry share relatively close locations throughout the large geographical range included in this study. Important Iberian signatures were detected in most Creole populations studied, and many of them, particularly the Cuban Creole, also revealed an important contribution of African breeds. On the other hand, the Brazilian breeds showed a particular genetic structure and were clearly separated from the other Creole populations, with some influence from Cape Verde goats. These results provide a comprehensive characterisation of the present structure of goat genetic diversity, and a dissection of the Iberian and African influences that gave origin to different Creole caprine breeds, disentangling an important part of their evolutionary history. Creole breeds constitute an important reservoir of genetic diversity that justifies the development of appropriate management systems aimed at improving performance without loss of genomic diversity.

The purpose of the study described in this Research Communication was to report the full characterisation of the goat and sheep oxytocin-neurophysin I gene (OXT), their promoters and amino acid sequences. Using the genomic DNA as template, we sequenced and compared the whole OXT gene (3 exons), plus 958/960 nucleotides at the 5′ flanking region and 478/477 nucleotides at the 3′ flanking region, in 46 sheep and 24 goats belonging to different breeds/genetic types reared in Italy, Greece and Germany. The comparison of the obtained sequences showed a high degree of genetic variability at these loci. In particular, we focused on the SNP g.438T > C as possible example of trans-specific polymorphism. This SNP alters a putative binding site of the transcription factor Oct-1. The set-up of a luciferase assay confirmed that the C variant of this SNP negatively affects the promoter activity of the sheep OXT gene. The results of this study suggest that the SNP g.438T > C might be useful to promote association studies with traits/physiological processes controlled by this hormone.

Functional agro biodiversity defines the exploitation of biodiversity to provide ecosystem services, support sustainable agricultural production and benefit the regional and global environment and the public at large (ELN-FAB, 2009; www.eln_fab.eu). Tracking of animal products back to the breed of origin based on their genetic make-up undoubtedly falls in this category. The aim of this paper was to identify and validate a set of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in goat coat colour genes, most of which have not been investigated before, to trace five goat populations of the Italian Alps and their product. Several regions of 28 genes influencing coat colour pathways were amplified in eight animals (two per breed). Sequence comparison revealed 48 SNPs and three INDEL (INsertion DELetion). No breed-specific alleles were detected; however, several SNPs showed an uneven frequency distribution between breeds. In BIO, the genotype frequency distribution of a non-synonymous SNP suggested a possible role of TYRP1 in brown eumelanic goat coat colour. A total of 29 independent SNPs in 20 genes were selected and used to allocate 159 minimally related goat samples using STRUCTURE 2.2 and GeneClass 2 software. STRUCTURE 2.2 assigns 99% of individuals to the correct breed considering the prior information on putative breed of origin for each sample and 81% using only the genotypic data. The three algorithms available in GeneClass 2 performed with nearly equal efficiency, with 86% and 87% correct allocations. All the methods yielded an average probability of assignment >0.92 and a specificity index >0.86. Despite their coat colour variability, individuals belonging to ORO were fully assigned, showing that, in the absence of a breed-specific allele tied to coat colour, the best assignment resulted for the most genetically distinct breed. The lowest rate of correct assignment was observed in Verzaschese (73%), not ascertained in the breed panel used in the SNP discovery phase.

The goat calcium-sensitive caseins (αs1, β and αs2) represent, over many years, an excellent model for demonstrating that the major part of the variability observed in the content of these proteins in goat milk is mostly due to the presence of autosomal alleles at single structural loci (CSN1S1, CSN2 and CSN1S2 respectively) clustered on a 200 kb segment of chromosome 6; furthermore, CSN1S1 and CSN2 are convergently transcribed and are only 12 kb apart (Rijnkels, 2002).

The selection of summer forage by three sympatric ungulates in the Damodar Kunda region of upper Mustang in north Nepal was studied to assess the extent of food overlap between them. To compare their diets, a micro-histological technique of faecal analysis was used, adjusted for inherent biases by comparing it with bite-count data obtained in domestic goats. Tibetan argali Ovis ammon hodgsoni, naur (blue sheep or bharal) Pseudois nayaur and domestic goat Capra hircus consumed mostly forbs, graminoids and browse, respectively. The proportions of food items in their diets were significantly different both at the plant species (P<0.02) and at the forage category level (P<0.001). Except for sharing three common plants (Agrostis sp., Stipa sp. and Potentilla fruticosa), dietary overlap at the species level was quite low. At the forage category level, naur and domestic goat overlapped more than the other ungulate pairs. Although all three species were opportunistic, mixed feeders, argali was a more selective forb specialist grazer than the other two ungulates. Owing to some spatial separation and little dietary overlap, interspecific competition for summer forage was low. If animal densities increase, however, goats are expected to compete more with naur than with argali because of their more similar diets. Owing to differences in forage selection by argali and naur throughout their large geographical ranges, reflecting adaptations to local ecological conditions, inferences regarding forage competition between domestic livestock and these two wild caprins need to be made from local, site-specific studies, rather than from general diet comparisons.

Introduced mammals are a major driver of extinction and ecosystem change, particularly on islands. Feral goats Capra hircus have been introduced to numerous islands worldwide and have had wholesale impacts on ecosystems. Techniques are now available, however, to eradicate goat populations from islands, providing a powerful conservation tool. Goats were removed from Pinta Island, Galápagos, Ecuador after a 30-year eradication campaign, the largest removal of an insular goat population using ground-based methods. Over 41,000 goats were removed during the initial hunting effort (1971–82). In the following decade the island was twice wrongly declared free of goats. During this period, the island was visited irregularly but no monitoring programme was implemented. A revised campaign over 1999–2003, which included improved hunting techniques and monitoring, removed the final goats from the island. The use of Judas goats was critical in locating the remaining goats and as a tool to confirm eradication. A systematic monitoring programme is critical for confirming eradication and preventing future reintroductions. An earlier monitoring programme would probably have resulted in earlier eradication and significant financial savings. Given limited resources, island conservation programmes elsewhere should strive to increase eradication efficiency and learn from past campaigns.

Alpha-lactalbumin (α-la), a calcium metalloprotein, is one of the major serum-proteins in ruminant milk (Jenness, 1982) and induces lactose synthesis in the mammary gland by interacting with the enzyme UDP-galactosyltransferase, giving rise to the heterodimer enzyme lactose synthase (Ebner & Brodbeck, 1968; Kuhn, 1983). The goat α-la transcription unit (LALBA), located on chromosome 5 (Hayes et al. 1993), is organized in 4 exons varying in length from 75 nucleotides (3rd exon) to 329 nucleotides (4th exon) coding for a 123-amino acid polypeptide chain (Vilotte et al. 1991). According to the strong similarity between bovine α-la (Vilotte et al. 1987) and human lysozyme (similar molecular weight, the same number of S-S bonds, identical N and C terminal residues; Peters et al. 1989), it has been proposed that both genes arose from a common ancestor (Vilotte et al. 1991).

Caseins (αs1, β, αs2, e κ) represent about 80% of the whole protein content of ruminant milk. Each of these proteins is encoded by single copy genes (CSN1S1, CSN2, CSN1S2 and CSN3, respectively) clustered on a ∼200-kb segment of chromosome 6 (Ferretti et al. 1990; Gallagher et al. 1994) in the order: CSN1S1, CSN2, CSN1S2 and CSN3 (Mercier & Vilotte, 1993). Furthermore, in cattle and goat CSN1S1 and CSN2 are convergently transcribed (Leroux & Martin, 1996; Rijnkles et al. 1997) and are only 20 and 12 kb apart, respectively.