Analysis and frequency of bovine lymphocyte antigen DRB3.2 alleles in Jersey cows

Jersey cows (n = 172) were genotyped for the bovine lymphocyte antigen (BoLA)-DRB3.2 allele by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Bovine DNA was isolated from aliquots of whole blood. A two-step polymerase chain reaction followed by digestion with restriction endonucleases RsaI, BstyI, and HaeIII was conducted on the DNA from Jersey cattle. Twenty-four BoLA-DRB3.2 alleles were identified with frequencies ranging from 0.3 to 22.9 %. Thirteen allele types were similar to those reported previously; and 11 were new allele types that have not been reported previously. Allele types reported previously include: BoLA-DRB3.2*2, *8, *10, *15, *17, *20, *21, *22, *23, *25, *28, *36, and *37. Their frequencies were 0.3, 11.3, 22.9, 13.6, 5.5, 3.7, 10.7, 3.5, 0.9, 0.3, 4.7, 9.3, and 0.9%, respectively. Of the new allele types detected, *ibe occurred at the highest frequency (6.1%) in Jersey cows from this herd. The six most frequently isolated alleles (BoLA-DRB3.2*2, *8, *10, *15, *21, *36, and *ibe) accounted for 73.9 % of the alleles in the population of this herd. Results of this study demonstrate that the BoLA-DRB3.2 locus is highly polymorphic in Jersey cattle.