Assessment of genetic diversity in main local sheep breeds from Romania using microsatellite markers

Abstract

Abstract. The state of the local breeds of farm animals is increasingly precarious worldwide because of the aggressive introduction of breeds with improved economical traits. The preference of the breeders for local breeds is due to their higher adaptability to the particular climate and relief conditions of the mountain areas, to the high rate of assimilation of the feeds from these regions and to their increased resistance to diseases. This study analyzes the genetic variation of the main four local Romanian sheep breeds (Tsurcana, Tsigai, Ratska and Teleorman Blackhead) in terms of stock and economic importance, using 18 microsatellite markers. The mean number of alleles per locus was of 9.764. The values of genetic diversity parameters exhibited a high degree of polymorphism for the analyzed breeds, although inbreeding was highlighted particularly in Tsurcana and Tsigai. These breeds also showed an intense gene flow among them and were less differentiated in comparison with Ratska and Teleorman Blackhead. The results of this study may be useful for breeding programs and conservation plans since the genetic resources of the local breeds must be preserved so as to maintain an adequate level of biodiversity in animal husbandry.

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of nine sheep populations based on microsatellite markers

“…In addition, the genetic diversity of four introduced mutton breeds (especially in DST) was relatively low in this study; therefore the result reminds us that the new individuals without kinship to current population should be added into these populations in order to keep rich genetic diversity and maintain excellent production performance as well as avoid inbreeding depression. Thirdly, for sheep in different regions of the world, Chinese sheep populations have an upper-middle level of genetic diversity, which is similar with previous reports (Niu et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2014;E et al, 2016. The genetic diversity in these Chinese sheep populations is higher than that of several breeds in Africa (e.g., West African Dwarf and Uda in Nigeria) (Agaviezor et al, 2012) and Europe (e.g., Cres island sheep and Lika pramenka sheep in Croatia; Denmark sheep in eastern Europe) (Tapio et al, 2010;Salamon et al, 2014).…”

Microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA analyses unveil the genetic structure of native sheep breeds from three major agro-ecological regions of India

“…The genetic variability observed in this study was higher than those reported in Jordan sheep 29 , and sheep breeds of the neighboring country, Pakistan 30 . However, it was comparable to the values reported across the world, for sheep 31,32 . Much higher diversity indices were recorded in Turkish sheep breeds that can be attributed to Turkey being considered as a major sheep domestication center 33 .…”

“…F ST values of the examined Indian sheep breeds were comparable to those reported for Baltic, Chiapas, and Akkarman sheep 33 . However, it was much higher than the F ST values reported for several others like Spanish, European, Middle Eastern, Colombian, Pakistani, and Romanian sheep breeds 30,32,37 . Much lower differentiation (5.6-5.9%) has been reported in Indian sheep breeds of SP region 15,27 .…”

Evaluation of Genetic Diversity and Structure of Turkish Water Buffalo Population by Using 20 Microsatellite Markers

“…The advantage of using microsatellite DNA polymorphism to estimate genetic diversity among breed and among associated populations has been researched in livestock such as water buffalo [ 8 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ], cattle [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], sheep [ 47 , 48 , 49 ] and goat [ 35 , 50 , 51 ]. To determine genetic diversity among water buffalo populations, several microsatellite studies have been published [ 12 , 17 , 18 ] in Turkey, but a study of genetic diversity of Turkish water buffalo that has collected 837 individuals from six geographical regions has not been performed until now.…”