Evolutionary Analysis of OAT Gene Family in River and Swamp Buffalo: Potential Role of SLCO3A1 Gene in Milk Performance

The organic anion transporter (OAT) family is the subfamily of the solute carrier (SLC) superfamily, which plays a vital role in regulating essential nutrients in milk. However, little is known about the members’ identification, evolutionary basis, and function characteristics of OAT genes associated with milk performance in buffalo. Comparative genomic analyses were performed to identify the potential role of buffalo OAT genes in milk performance in this study. The results showed that a total of 10 and 7 OAT genes were identified in river buffalo and swamp buffalo, respectively. These sequences clustered into three groups based on their phylogenetic relationship and had similar motif patterns and gene structures in the same groups. Moreover, the river-specific expansions and homologous loss of OAT genes occurred in the two buffalo subspecies during the evolutionary process. Notably, the duplicated SLCO3A1 gene specific to river buffalo showed higher expression level in mammary gland tissue than that of swamp buffalo. These findings highlight some promising candidate genes that could be potentially utilized to accelerate the genetic progress in buffalo breeding programs. However, the identified candidate genes require further validation in a larger cohort for use in the genomic selection of buffalo for milk production.