Comprehensive assessment of milk composition in transgenic cloned cattle

PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e49697. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049697. Epub 2012 Nov 21.

Abstract

The development of transgenic cloned animals offers new opportunities for agriculture, biomedicine and environmental science. Expressing recombinant proteins in dairy animals to alter their milk composition is considered beneficial for human health. However, relatively little is known about the expression profile of the proteins in milk derived from transgenic cloned animals. In this study, we compared the proteome and nutrient composition of the colostrum and mature milk from three lines of transgenic cloned (TC) cattle that specifically express human α-lactalbumin (TC-LA), lactoferrin (TC-LF) or lysozyme (TC-LZ) in the mammary gland with those from cloned non-transgenic (C) and conventionally bred normal animals (N). Protein expression profile identification was performed, 37 proteins were specifically expressed in the TC animals and 70 protein spots that were classified as 22 proteins with significantly altered expression levels in the TC and C groups compared to N group. Assessment of the relationship of the transgene effect and normal variability in the milk protein profiles in each group indicated that the variation in the endogenous protein profiles of the three TC groups was within the limit of natural variability. More than 50 parameters for the colostrum and mature milk were compared between each TC group and the N controls. The data revealed essentially similar profiles for all groups. This comprehensive study demonstrated that in TC cattle the mean values for the measured milk parameters were all within the normal range, suggesting that the expression of a transgene does not affect the composition of milk.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified*
  • Cattle
  • Chromatography, Liquid / methods
  • Cloning, Organism
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
  • Female
  • Food Safety
  • Lactalbumin / chemistry
  • Lactoferrin / chemistry
  • Milk / metabolism*
  • Muramidase / chemistry
  • Proteomics / methods
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods
  • Transgenes

Substances

  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Lactalbumin
  • Muramidase
  • Lactoferrin

Grants and funding

This project was supported by the “863” High-Tech Research Development Project (project grant numbers 2010AA10A105 and 2011AA100601). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.