Genetic diversity and population structure of different varieties of Morada Nova hair sheep from Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study was to analyze genetic diversity and population structure among varieties of White (N = 40), Red (N = 32), and Black (N = 31) Morada Nova hair sheep from flocks in the northeastern Brazilian semiarid region. Fifteen nuclear microsatellite markers and two regions of mitochondrial DNA were used. The intra-population analysis demonstrated that the White variety had higher diversity, while the Red variety had the lowest values. The Bayesian analysis to assess the genetic population structure allowed differentiation between White, Red, and Black varieties, and revealed a tendency towards sub-structuring in the White variety flocks from the States of Ceará and Paraíba. The results of analyses of molecular variance showed that the greatest genetic structure was found when comparing flocks rather than varieties (8.59 vs 6.64% of the total variation, P < 0.001). Based on genetic distance, Dtl, both the dendrogram analysis and the principal coordinate analysis showed the formation of two main groups: one composed of White and another of Black and Red individuals. Five and two haplotypes were found for the D-loop region and the ND5 gene, respectively. A haplotype unique to the Red variety was found in the D-loop region and a variety haplotype unique to the Black variety was found in the ND5 gene; however, these frequencies were low and therefore require further validation. These results support the existence of substantial differences between the Red and White varieties and should be used as separate genetic resources and to improve conservation programs.

Contribution of microsatellites markers in the clarification of the origin, genetic risk factors, and implications for conservation of Tunisian native sheep breeds

“…Lowest heterozygosity and greatest inbreeding coefficient (F IS ) values exhibited by CRO population are shown in bold font. In general, the analyzed populations showed reasonably high allelic richness and heterozygosity values compared to some African (Soma et al, 2012;Kunene et al, 2014;Mukhongo et al, 2014), European (Salamon et al, 2014), Asian (Al-Barzinji et al, 2011;Blackburn et al, 2011b), and American (Blackburn, et al, 2011a;Souza et al, 2012;Ferreira et al, 2014) sheep breeds. The lowest values of AR and heterozygosity were observed in the crossbred population in which H O was notably lower than the H E (Table 2).…”

Conservation genetics in Chinese sheep: diversity of fourteen indigenous sheep (Ovis aries) using microsatellite markers

“…However, commercial lines and industrialized livestock production systems have spread over all continents resulting in decreasing of large indigenous sheep breeds in comparison with some commercial breeds. Many studies have assessed the diversity of native local sheep in India (Dorji et al 2010;Pandey et al 2010;Arora et al 2011), the Middle East and Europe (Alvarez et al 2005;Lawson Handley et al 2007;Peter et al 2007;Zahedi-Zahra et al 2007;Dalvit et al 2009;Glowatzki-Mullis et al 2009;Bowles et al 2014;Yilmaz et al 2014;Pons et al 2015), Eurasia (Blackburn et al 2011a;Paiva et al 2011a,b;Salamon et al 2014), America Paiva et al 2011a,b;Souza et al 2012;Crispim et al 2013;Ferreira et al 2014), and Africa (Gizaw et al 2007;Agaviezor et al 2012;Qwabe et al 2013;Gaouar et al 2015).…”

How to better conserve with genetic data: origin and population structure of Brazilian locally adapted hair sheep (Ovis aries) breeds

“…There are substantial differences between the Red and White varieties of Morada Nova, which should be used as separate genetic resources to improve conservation programs (39). This subgrouping inside the breed can also be seen here (K>25; S4 Fig).…”