Climate change has the potential to adversely affect the health of livestock, with consequences to animal welfare, greenhouse gas emissions, productivity, human health and livelihoods. Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a genotype to produce different phenotypes, depending on environmental, biotic or abiotic conditions; it is a factor influencing and modifying the genes of animal and plant organisms, to adaptation to climate change. Among the various climate variables, heat stress has been reported to be the most detrimental factor to the economy of the livestock industry. There are a number of candidate genes that are associated with adaptation of ruminants, monogastric and poultry to heat stress. For instance, the genes encoding leptin, thyroid hormone receptor, insulin growth factor-1, growth hormone receptor, are associated with the impacts of heat stress on the physiological pathways of domestic animals such as dairy cows, beef cattle, buffaloes, poultry, pigs and horses. This review aims to highlight genes and traits that are involved with thermo-tolerance of domestic animals to sustain production and to cope with climate change. Selection and experimental evolution approaches have shown that plasticity is a trait that can evolve when under direct selection and has a correlated response to some specific traits. Therefore, new breeding goals should be defined for the potential of livestock species to acquire plasticity for adaptation to the current climate changing conditions. HIGHLIGHTS Heat stress compromises feed intake, growth, milk and meat quality and quantity, resulting in a significant financial burden to global livestock. Genetic selection and nutritional intervention are key strategies to consider in Animal Genetic Resources in hot environments. Information from gene expression or genome-wide association studies can be used to further improve the accuracy of selection.

In the present study, genetic diversity and population structure of Holstein Friesian and three native cattle breeds of Turkey including Turkish Grey Steppe, Eastern Anatolian Red and Anatolian Black were assessed. Totally 120 individuals of 4 breeds were genotyped using 20 microsatellite markers and 204 different alleles, of which 31 were private alleles, were detected. The average observed and expected heterozygosity values were 0.63 and 0.74, respectively. Observed heterozygosity at the marker level ranged from 0.30 (DRBP1) to 0.88 (ILSTS011), while expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.51 (INRABERN172) to 0.88 (SPS113). Inbreeding coefficient values for Turkish Grey Steppe, Eastern Anatolian Red, Anatolian Black and Holstein Friesian were 0.216, 0.202, 0.128 and 0.069, respectively. The lowest pairwise F_ST value (0.030) was detected between Turkish Grey Steppe and Anatolian Black breeds, while the highest value (0.070) was detected between Turkish Grey Steppe and Holstein Friesian. Results of structure and factorial correspondence analysis revealed that Turkish native cattle breeds and Holstein Friesian were genetically different enough to separate the two breeds. Results of bottleneck analysis indicated heterozygosity deficiency in Turkish Grey Steppe (P < 0.05).

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Italy holds important genetic resources of small ruminant breeds. By distinguishing goat breeds at the DNA level, certification of products from specific breeds can be valorized. The aim of this study was to establish the genetic identity of Facciuta della Valnerina, a local goat population of Italy, compared with the cosmopolitan breeds, Saanen and Camosciata delle Alpi, reared in the same geographic area. A total of 116 microsatellite alleles ranging from 4 to 13 were detected at 16 loci in the three goat populations/breeds. A total of 23 private alleles with frequencies lower than 0.3 were detected in the Facciuta della Valnerina population. The mean numbers of alleles were 6.67, 4.58, and 4.92 in Facciuta della Valnerina, Camosciata delle Alpi, and Saanen, respectively. The expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.20 to 0.86. Most loci were highly polymorphic and informative (polymorphic information content ≥0.50). Factorial correspondence analysis and principal components analysis revealed very clear separation between Facciuta della Valnerina and the two reference goat breeds. Reducing the number of markers from 16 to 12 (on the basis of polymorphic information content and the number of alleles) still allowed us to distinguish the local population, indicating that microsatellite markers are capable of discriminating local livestock breeds at a low cost.

Abstract. Conservation and breeding programmes of livestock species depend on determination of genetic diversity. Today in livestock species, microsatellite markers are commonly used to reveal population structure and genetic diversity in both breeds and varieties. In this study, population structure, genetic diversity, and differentiation among four native Turkish sheep breeds including Güney Karaman, Kangal, Norduz, and Karakas were assessed by using 21 microsatellite loci. By genotyping 120 individuals belonging to four sheep breeds, a total of 275 different alleles, 37 of which were private alleles, were observed across all loci. The mean number of alleles per breed ranged from 7.28 (Güney Karaman) to 8.09 (Karakas), while allelic richness ranged from 7.22 (Güney Karaman) to 7.87 (Karakas). Mean observed heterozygosity varied from 0.60 (Kangal) to 0.66 (Norduz and Karakas). The lowest pairwise FST value (0.084) was between Kangal and Karakas populations, while the highest pairwise FST value (0.142) was between Norduz and Karakas populations. Polymorphic information content (PIC) values, ranging from 0.71 (ETH10) to 0.91 (OarFCB304), were highly polymorphic (PIC > 0.5) and informative in studied populations. In the present study, the results of phylogenetic analysis were of importance, since all studied populations have been accepted as Akkaraman varieties till today. However, factorial correspondence and structure analysis, pairwise FST values, and an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean analysis (UPGMA) dendrogram revealed that Güney Karaman and Norduz populations have became genetically different from the Akkaraman breed due being raised in different parts of Turkey under different climatic conditions together with their breeding practices. Therefore, we recommend that more comprehensive molecular studies should be conducted to clarify genetic differentiation of Akkaraman sheep varieties.

Determination of Polymorphisms in IGF-I and NPY Candidate Genes Associated with Egg Yield in Pure Layers Chicken Lines Reared in the Ankara Poultry Research Institute A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Research ArticleReceived 27 April 2017 Accepted 09 June 2017Insulin-like factor-I (IGF-I) and neropeptide Y (NPY) are candidate genes related with reproductive traits in chicken. The aim of the present study, were to determine polymorphisms the IGF-I (5' untranslated region) and NPY genes in pure layer lines reared Ankara Poultry Research Institute by using PCR-RFLP method. For this purpose, 621 and 248 bp fragments were amplified for IGF-I and NPY genes, respectively. The PCR products were digested with PstI and DraI restriction enzymes, respectively, to detect of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on IGF-I and NPY genes. All pure chicken lines were found polymorphic except Black and D-229 lines for the IGF-I gene. While the frequency of A allele ranged from 0.344 (COL) and 0.906 (RIRII) in brown layer pure lines for IGF-I gene, in white layer pure lines were found in the range between 0.781 (Maroon) and 1.000 Brown). While all brown pure layer chicken lines were polymorphic for NPY gene in this research, only Maroon line was found monomorphic in white layer chicken lines. The frequency of the T allele for NPY gene ranged between 0.200 (BARI) and 0.985 (COL) in brown layers and between 0.397 (D-229) and 1.000 (Maroon) in white layers. According to applied chi-square test, no deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed in polymorphic populations. As a result, polymorphisms were shown for the first time for IGF-I and NPY genes in pure layer lines reared at the Ankara Poultry Research Institute.

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