Genetic diversity measures of local European beef cattle breeds for conservation purposes

Abstract

-This study was undertaken to determine the genetic structure, evolutionary relationships, and the genetic diversity among 18 local cattle breeds from Spain, Portugal, and France using 16 microsatellites. Heterozygosities, estimates of Fst, genetic distances, multivariate and diversity analyses, and assignment tests were performed. Heterozygosities ranged from 0.54 in the Pirenaica breed to 0.72 in the Barrosã breed. Seven percent of the total genetic variability can be attributed to differences among breeds (mean F st = 0.07; P < 0.01). Five different genetic distances were computed and compared with no correlation found to be significantly different from 0 between distances based on the effective size of the population and those which use the size of the alleles. The Weitzman recursive approach and a multivariate analysis were used to measure the contribution of the breeds diversity. The Weitzman approach suggests that the most important breeds to be preserved are those grouped into two clusters: the cluster formed by the Mirandesa and Alistana breeds and that of the Sayaguesa and Tudanca breeds. The hypothetical extinction of one of those clusters represents a 17% loss of diversity. A correspondence analysis not only distinguished four breed groups but also confirmed results of previous studies classifying the important breeds contributing to diversity. In addition, the variation between breeds was sufficiently high so as to allow individuals to be assigned to their breed of origin with a probability of 99% for simulated samples.local beef cattle breeds / microsatellite / genetic diversity

Genetic relationships among twelve Chinese indigenous goat populations based on microsatellite analysis

“…On the contrary, when we repeated the analysis excluding one by one the breeds in which there was a breed-specific allele, a zooming-in effect on the other populations appeared in the results. These two changes were also reported by Cañón J. et al [10].…”

Relative breed contributions to neutral genetic diversity of a comprehensive representation of Iberian native cattle

“…Further details on sample collection, DNA extraction and genotyping procedures can be found in previous publications (Martín-Burriel et al, 1999;Cañ on et al, 2001;Ginja et al, 2010a).…”

“…Both countries are characterised by a large number of local cattle breeds, most of which are considered threatened genetic resources. Although many of the breeds included in this study have been previously characterised genetically to some extent together with other breeds (Martín-Burriel et al, 1999;Cañ on et al, 2001;Mateus et al, 2004;Cymbron et al, 2005;Martín-Burriel et al, 2007;Ginja et al, 2010a), a comprehensive analysis of the genetic diversity present in the Iberian Peninsula and a source of important bovine genetic resources has never been made.…”

Motives and values in farming local cattle breeds in Europe: a survey on 15 breeds

“…The diversity study on goats (Cañón et al, 2006) also supports the hypothesis that domestic livestock migrated from the Middle East towards western and northern Europe and indicate that breed formation was more systematic there than in the Middle East. The studies have been used to find the genetic distances between the cattle breeds and thereby find the most unique breeds with highest value for conservation (Cañón et al, 2001). The Weitzman approach in breed diversity studies has been criticized for neglecting the within breed variation (e.g.…”