Genetic Characterization and Alternative Preservation Ways of Locally Adapted Sheep Breeds: Cases of Private and Public Sheep Sectors in Tunisia and Italy

Abstract

Non-commercialized sheep breeds known as local or native breeds are well adapted to their environmental constraints and constitute precious genetic resources that need prioritization for genetic diversity characterization and preservation. The aim of the present study was to assess the genetic diversity level and the related preservation decisions of very old and traditional native Mediterranean sheep breeds from Tunisia and Italy using 17 microsatellite markers. In total, 975 sheep were sampled from five Tunisian, one Center Italian, and four Venetian native breeds. Both private and publicly available farms were considered for each breed for breeding strategies’ comparison purposes. The microsatellite set used was highly informative (PIC = 0.80 ± 0.08), with a total of 383 alleles. Moderate genetic differentiation was revealed between the native sheep of the two Mediterranean sides (global overall loci FST = 0.081). The genetic diversity level was higher in the case of the Tunisian native breeds compared to the Italian ones, as evidenced by higher mean allelic richness, higher expected and observed heterozygosities, and lower inbreeding levels. Priority for conservation suggestions was carried out for each private or public breed population based on the contribution of each population to the diversity of the whole data. The four Venetian breeds, already undergoing conservation, the Tunisian dairy breed, and the very ancient Maghrebian breed, would be favored for conservation. In conclusion, our results highlighted the importance of the analyzed Mediterranean native sheep breeds as valuable inherited genetic reservoirs and supported previous conservation decisions made for the threatened breeds.

Ecogroups and maternal haplogroups reveal the ancestral origin of native Chinese goat populations based on the variation of mtDNA D‐loop sequences

“…Analysis of animal kinship and ancestry and estimation of population purity and protection have been performed on cattle and sheep populations(Ben Sassi-Zaidy et al, 2022;Zheng et al, 2020). According to the assessment of the investigated population in Figure6, the higher RDA of A8 in SCG may be evidence for TapB as the maternal ancestral haplotype; However, its distribution in IBG is and its proportion in SWG (4.59%) is low.…”