A novel method revealing animal evolutionary relationships based on milk Mid-infrared

Mid-infrared spectra (MIRS) can effectively reflect the chemical bonds in milk, which has been widely used in dairy herd improvement. However, the relationship between MIRS and animal evolution remains largely unclear. This study firstly found great differences in MIRS and the components of milk by analyzing MIRS information of 12 different mammal species. A five-level discriminant model of evolutionary level based on MIRS was established with a test set kappa coefficient >0.97. In addition, a regression model of genetic distance was also established to estimate the genetic distance of different animal species with a correlation coefficient of R >0.94. These results showed that this method could be used for accurate mammalian evolutionary relationship assessment. We further clarified the potential relationship between MIRS and genes, such as PPP3CA and SCD that could change MIRS by regulating specific milk components. In conclusion, we expand the application of MIRS in animal species identification and evolution research and provide new perspectives for the research on the formation mechanism of different animal milk special components.