Phenotypes
Chediak-Higashi syndrome
By cloning and sequencing a very likely comparative candidate gene (based on the homologous human disorder), Kunieda et al. (1999) identified a missense mutation (A to G) in the bovine LYST gene, producing an amino-acid substitution of histidine to arginine (H2015R) in the resultant peptide.
Hemimelia, tibial
See also: 'OMIA:001009-9915 : Hemimelia, tibial in Bos indicus'
Marfan syndrome — Marfan Syndrome
Besser et al. (1990) reported a congenital syndrome of long, thin limbs, severe joint and tendon laxity, microspherophakia, ectopia lentis, heart murmurs and aortic dilatation in 7 calves, where all sired by a single phenotypically normal bull suspected of germline mosaicism for a new mutation resulting in this disease. One of the calves died with ruptured aorta at age 16 months. Histopathologic and electron microscopic studies of the aortic m...
Protoporphyria — bovine erythropoietic protoporphyria
The report of the use of a DNA genotyping test by Healy et al. (1995), citing a personal communication from G.S. Johnson at the University of Missouri, implied that the molecular basis of this disorder within the gene for ferrochelatase had been determined by Dr Johnson. Jenkins et al. (1998) appear to have been the first to publicly report the molecular basis of this disorder. They did so by cloning and sequencing a very likely comparative ca...
Trimethylaminuria (fishy taint)
In a neat piece of comparative detective work, Lunden et al. (2002; Genome Research 12:1885-1888) investigated whether the fishy off-flavour occasionally reported in cow's milk could be an animal model of fish-odor syndrome in humans, an inborn error of metabolism characterised by a fishy body odor, and known to be due to mutations in the gene for flavin-containing mono-oxygenase 3 (FMO3). They were able to show that this is, indeed, the case:...