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BackgroundThe origin of native and locally developed Russian cattle breeds is linked to the historical, social, cultural, and climatic features of the diverse geographical regions of Russia. In the present study, we investigated the population structure of nine Russian cattle breeds and their relations to the cattle breeds from around the world to elucidate their origin. Genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Bestuzhev (n = 26), Russian Black-and-White (n = 21), Kalmyk (n = 14), Kholmogor (n = 25), Kostromsky (n = 20), Red Gorbatov (n = 23), Suksun (n = 20), Yakut (n = 25), and Yaroslavl cattle breeds (n = 21) was done using the Bovine SNP50 BeadChip. SNP profiles from an additional 70 breeds were included in the analysis as references.ResultsThe observed heterozygosity levels were quite similar in eight of the nine studied breeds (HO = 0.337–0.363) except for Yakut (Ho = 0.279). The inbreeding coefficients FIS ranged from -0.028 for Kalmyk to 0.036 for Russian Black-and-White and were comparable to those of the European breeds. The nine studied Russian breeds exhibited taurine ancestry along the C1 axis of the multidimensional scaling (MDS)-plot, but Yakut was clearly separated from the European taurine breeds on the C2 axis. Neighbor-Net and admixture analyses, discriminated three groups among the studied Russian breeds. Yakut and Kalmyk were assigned to a separate group because of their Turano-Mongolian origin. Russian Black-and-White, Kostromsky and Suksun showed transboundary European ancestry, which originated from the Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Danish Red breeds, respectively. The lowest level of introgression of transboundary breeds was recorded for the Kholmogor, Yaroslavl, Red Gorbatov and Bestuzhev breeds, which can be considered as an authentic genetic resource.ConclusionsWhole-genome SNP analysis revealed that Russian native and locally developed breeds have conserved authentic genetic patterns in spite of the considerable influence of Eurasian taurine cattle. In this paper, we provide fundamental genomic information that will contribute to the development of more accurate breed conservation programs and genetic improvement strategies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12711-018-0408-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Two sets of commercially available single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) developed for cattle (BovineSNP50 BeadChip) and sheep (OvineSNP50 BeadChip) have been trialed for whole-genome analysis of 4 female samples of Rangifer tarandus inhabiting Russia. We found out that 43.0% of bovine and 47.0% of Ovine SNPs could be genotyped, while only 5.3% and 2.03% of them were respectively polymorphic. The scored and the polymorphic SNPs were identified on each bovine and each ovine chromosome, but their distribution was not unique. The maximal value of runs of homozygosity (ROH) was 30.93Mb (for SNPs corresponding to bovine chromosome 8) and 80.32Mb (for SNPs corresponding to ovine chromosome 7). Thus, the SNP chips developed for bovine and ovine species can be used as a powerful tool for genome analysis in reindeer R. tarandus.