Challenges and opportunities of bovine milk analysis by mass spectrometry

Abstract

Bovine milk and its products (e.g. cheese, yoghurt) are an important part of human diet with beneficial effects for all ages. Although analyses of different milk components (e.g. proteins, lipids) pose huge challenges, the use of mass spectrometric (MS)-based techniques is steadily improving our understanding of the complexity of the biological traits that effect milk yield and its components to meet the global demand arising from population growth. In addition, different milk constituents have various applications in veterinary research and medicine, including early disease diagnosis. The aim of the review is to present an overview of the progress made in MS-based analysis of milk, and suggest a multi-pronged MS strategy to better explore different milk components for translational and clinical utilities.

Keywords: Bovine; Lipidomics; Livestock; Mass spectrometry; Milk; Proteomics.

Fig. 1

Schematic representation of the structure of mammary gland. a A general model of udder, b image of udder with complex tissue comprised of many ducts and alveoli, c an alveolus comprising of many cell types such as secretory and intercalating ducts, d an alveolus showing merocrine mode of secretion for protein component of the milk, e an alveolus showing apocrine mode of secretion for lipid component of the milk

Fig. 2

Possible pathways for protein identification. A combination of strategies for characterization of bovine milk whey and casein for maximizing successful protein identification