Genetic Characterization of Kazakh Native Sheep Breeds Using Mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

In this study, we used mitochondrial (mt) DNA to reveal patterns of genetic diversity among six breeds of sheep native to Kazakhstan, including the Chu and Kalchengel types of Kazakh mutton-semifine-wool breed of sheep, Akzhayik, Edilbay, Kazakh fat-rumped semi-course-wool and South Kazakh Merino breeds. Mitochondrial DNA D-loop was studied in 64 samples to determine the genetic diversity of the local sheep breeds. The analysis identified 54 haplotypes and 113 polymorphic loci of mtDNA D-loop. For the studied breeds, haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were 0.993±0.005 and 0.039±0.001, respectively. The results indicated higher level of nucleotide diversity in the South Kazakh Merino (SKM) breed (0.047), while the lowest diversity was observed in the Edilbay breed (0.029). In addition, the average number of nucleotide differences (Kxy) and the average number of nucleotide substitutions (Dxy) were determined among the studied breeds. The minimal value of genetic distance was observed between Akzhayik mutton-wool and Kazakh fat-rumped semicourse-wool breeds (Kxy: 16.956 and Dxy: 0.039), while the maximum value was observed between the Edilbay and SKM breeds (Kxy: 24.600 and Dxy: 0.040). Phylogenetic analysis revealed the presence of three haplogroups, namely, A, B and C in the collected sample, while the haplogroups D and E were not found. The results indicated that 28 of 64 tested animals belong to haplogroup A (43.75%), whereas 25 of investigated animals were attributed to haplogroup B (39.06%) and 11 animals to haplogroup C (17.19%).

Mitochondrial DNA analysis of ancient sheep from Kazakhstan: evidence for early sheep introduction

“…In our previous study, a sample of 64 unrelated animals from six local sheep breeds was studied [ 13 ]. A similar distribution of haplogroups in modern local sheep breeds was reported.…”

“…Five custom TaqMan probes (Life Technologies, USA) were used to target sheep mtDNA polymorphisms 15459, 15476, 15484, 15509, and 15512 ( Table 1 ). The custom TaqMan probes were designed by Custom TaqMan Assay Design Tool (Thermo, CA, USA) and were described earlier [ 13 ]. Haplogroups were assigned based on differences in the specific sites of mtDNA [ 24 ] ( Table 2 ).…”

“…These analyses have revealed that there are five distinct lineages (haplogroups A, B, C, D, and E) of domestic sheep. Limited data indicated that sheep breeds from Kazakhstan have an intermediate genetic composition between that of Asian and European breeds [ 2 , 4 , 13 ]. Therefore, studying archeological sites located in this region may shed light on the migration routes and genetic structure of ancient sheep [ 14 ].…”

SNP genotyping and population analysis of five indigenous Kazakh sheep breeds

“…3a, S3). Each component in this range was responsible for no more than 1% of all variation, so ADMIXTURE demonstrates high On the one hand, studies including Kazakh sheep varieties usually limited by a local context (Blackburn et al, 2011;Dossybayev et al, 2018;Mukhametzharova et al, 2018;Ozerov et al, 2008aOzerov et al, , 2008b). On the other hand, in global between breed diversity studies Kazakh breeds are not being included (Kijas et al, 2012;Meadows et al, 2007Meadows et al, , 2005 or have low representation (Hiendleder et al, 2002;Meadows et al, 2011) in global between-breed diversity studies.…”

Characteristics of Autochthonous Breeds of Russia and Kazakhstan by Micronuclear Test

“…INTRODUCTION Bioindication, as an integral part of biomonitoring, has developed as a methodology for scientific research, and this is especially important since today, consequence of scientific and technological progress have become an objective reality (Gorovtsov et al, 2017; Jiyenbekov et al, 2018; Minakova et al, 2018; Hodov et al, 2019). The use of methods based on morphogenetic indicators of developmental stability and cytogenetic homeostasis are a promising direction since they meet practically all the requirements of biomonitoring (Udroiu, 2007; Udroiu and Sgura, 2017; Bakhtiar et al, 2017; Cox et al, 2019; Belhadj Slimen et al, 2019).Morphogenetic indicators characterize the level of cytogenetic stability of an individual organism and can form its phenotype under the conditions of a specific environment(Zakharov, and Trofimov, 2017; Kolosov et al, 2017;Mukhametzharova et al, 2018). Cytogenetic homeostasis can be studied using a micronucleus test, the essence of which is to calculate the number and volume of cells with micronuclei(Shapiro et al, 2003;Astafieva, 2017; Gülden Yilmaz and Gül, 2017; Monte et al, 2019; Sabbioni et al, 2018; Maass et al, 2018; Wu et al, 2019).…”