Two new variants have been detected and characterized for the goat
β-lactoglobulin gene at the cDNA level and confirmed at the genomic level. The two
polymorphisms are located on exon 7 of the gene. One of the polymorphic sites is
produced by a single nucleotide substitution in position +4601, allowing a
polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP)
genotyping procedure to be developed using SacII restriction enzyme. The other
polymorphic position contains a 10 bp long insertion at position +4641 that can be
detected by capillary electrophoresis of the PCR product amplified with a fluorescent
primer. The association of these two polymorphisms was also investigated, resulting
in the description of two new alleles. Both of these contained the point mutation at
the SacII site, with or without the 10 bp insertion at position +4641. The
distribution of these new polymorphisms was studied in a population of males of four
different goat breeds. The gene frequencies for these variants were similar in Spanish
and French breeds.