Expression sequence tag and QTL/MAS of goat/sheep in China

Goats/sheep are important in the animal agriculture of China. Distribution of these animals in China is closely related to the economic performance and ecological conditions in the specific regions. Comparative genome study is popular in China although the sheep and goat genome information are not well sequenced. Expression Sequence Tags (EST) are well developed in skin and ovary organ. Transgenic productions are focused on goat milk chiefly. Microsatellite DNA and mtDNA polymorphism were used to analyze the genetic structure mainly and some of them were used to detect the Quantitative Trait Loci(QTL) of goat and sheep. Only the candidate gene markers are used as Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) and integrated into Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) selection strategy in goat and sheep nucleus breeding flock according to different breeds. Although some studies have proposed direct selection on the individual gene loci responsible for the genetic variation in some traits, there are 20 goat/sheep gene patents in the past decade. Some patents on gene with extremely broad claims will shadow over the commercialization of these gene and fill the blank of the gene patents in goat/sheep fields.