Patent ID: 7638275

Claim:
A method of determining whether cattle are genetically elite for milk production, the method comprising: i) determining a gene expression profile of cattle using as a plurality of genes SEQ ID NOS: 334, 279, 79, 156, 23, 353, 40, 73, 306, 120, 107, 149, 119, 179, 288, 32, 95, 221, 211, 152, 312, 244, 36, 105, 253 and 164; ii) comparing the gene expression profile of the cattle with a Gene Expression Index constructed by (a) selecting cattle with at least two specific levels of milk production; (b) selecting a plurality of genes for which expression can be determined; (c) comparing expression levels of the plurality of genes in cattle at each of the two levels of milk production; and (d) determining a set of genes predictive of high milk production or with a Reference Expression Profile constructed by (a) selecting an optimal subset of genes from the Gene Expression Index that accounts for a significant fraction of the variation in milk production; (b) determining a gene expression profile of the cattle for the optimal subset; and (c) designating the gene expression profile as a Reference Expression profile for high milk production; and (iii) designating the cattle as elite for milk production if their gene expression profile is similar to the Gene Expression Index or the Reference Expression Profile.