Recent advances in reproductive endocrinology and physiology of mammals, molecular biology and genetic engineering have enhanced the expansion of the field of animal reproductive biotechnology. To date, many reproductive techniques have been applied in livestock animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. Nevertheless, the application of such techniques is still limited in goat. This paper aims to ...

The c-kit protein plays a major role in the regulation of germ cell development. Its expression and distribution in rodent testes have been widely reported. However, research regarding c-kit expression in domestic animals is scarce, and the expression pattern and distribution of c-kit in germ cells have not been clearly defined. In this study, a specific antigenic region for goat c-kit was desi...

This paper presents a first genetic linkage map of the goat genome. Primers derived from the flanking sequences of 612 bovine, ovine and goat microsatellite markers were gathered and tested for amplification with goat DNA under standardized PCR conditions. This screen made it possible to choose a set of 55 polymorphic markers that can be used in the three species and to define a panel of 223 mi...

BACKGROUND Liaoning cashmere goat is a famous goat breed for cashmere wool. In order to increase the transcriptome data and accelerate genetic improvement for this breed, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing to generate the first expressed sequence tag dataset for the Liaoning cashmere goat, using next-generation sequencing technology. RESULTS Transcriptome sequencing of Liaoning cas...

Ghrelin acts as an endocrine link connecting physiological processes regulating food intake, body composition, growth, and energy balance. Ghrelin is the only peptide known to undergo octanoylation. The enzyme mediating this process, ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT), is expressed in the gastrointestinal tract (GI; primary source of circulating ghrelin) as well as other tissues. The present stud...

Taste perception plays an important role in regulating food preference, eating behavior and energy homeostasis. Taste perception is modulated by a variety of factors, including gastric hormones such as ghrelin. Ghrelin can regulate growth hormone release, food intake, adiposity, and energy metabolism. Octanoylation of ghrelin by ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT) is a specific post-translational ...

In Oklahoma, goat producers are blessed with climatic conditions conducive to viable goat production. However, they also are burdened with the eastward expansion of predator populations that constantly are increasing. Predator control within a goat herd is probably one of the single most important factors in maintaining profitable returns from a goat operation. In 2004, U.S. losses of goats and...

Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is an economically important pathogen of cattle worldwide. Infection of a pregnant animal may lead to persistent infection of the foetus and birth of a persistently infected (PI) calf that sheds the virus throughout its life. However, BVD viruses are not strictly species specific. BVDV has been isolated from many domesticated and wild ruminants. This is of pr...

Kisspeptins, the product of the KISS1 gene, play an essential role in the regulation of reproductive functions, acting primarily at the hypothalamic level of the gonadotropic axis. We detected polymorphisms of the goat KISS1 gene in 723 individuals from three goat breeds (Xinong Saanen, Guanzhong, and Boer) by DNA pooling, PCR-RFLP, and DNA sequencing methods. We cloned the promoter sequence of...

Ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT) attaches octanoate to proghrelin, which is processed to ghrelin, an octanoylated peptide hormone that stimulates release of growth hormone (GH) from pituitary cells. Elimination of the gene encoding ghrelin or its receptor produces only mild phenotypes in mice. Thus, the essential function of ghrelin is obscure. Here, we eliminate the Goat gene in mice, thereby ...