mtDNA Diversity and genetic lineages of eighteen cattle breeds from Bos taurus and Bos indicus in China

Abstract

In order to clarify the origin and genetic diversity of indigenous cattle breeds in China, we carried out phylogenetic analysis of representatives of those breeds by employing mitochondrial gene polymorphism. Complete cyt b gene sequences, 1140 bp in length, were determined for a total of 136 individuals from 18 different breeds and these sequences were clustered into two distinct genetic lineages: taurine (Bos taurus) and zebu (Bos indicus). In analysis of the cyt b gene diversity, Chinese cattle showed higher nucleotide (0.00923) and haplotype diversity (0.848) than the reports from other studies, and the animals from the taurine lineage indicated higher nucleotide diversity (0.00330) and haplotype diversity (0.746) than the ones from the zebu lineage (0.00136; 0.661). The zebu mtDNA dominated in the southern breeds (63.3-100%), while the taurine dominated in the northern breeds (81.8-100%). Six cattle breeds from the central area of China exhibited intermediate frequencies of zebu mtDNA (25-71.4%). This polymorphism revealed a declining south-to-north gradient of female zebu introgression and a geographical hybrid zone of Bos taurus and Bos indicus in China.

On the origin of cattle: How aurochs became cattle and colonized the world

“…25 Around the second century AD, cattle migrated from North China via the Korean peninsula to Japan. 30 Zebu mtDNA haplotypes dominate in native cattle 30,32,58 from India and the Philippines, with a gradual decrease from India to Nepal, south and southwest China and central China to a low frequency in northwest China, west China, and Mongolia and a complete absence in Korea and Japan. In China, the prehistoric immigration of taurine cattle from the north and indicine cattle from the south left their traces in the present genetic landscape with a taurineindicine north-south gradient of both mtDNA and Y-chromosomes.…”

Phylogenetic relationships of Malayan gaur with other species of the genus Bos based on cytochrome b gene DNA sequences

“…To date, studies on the relationship of species in the genus Bos have been investigated by researchers around the world using several types of molecular data and techniques: a) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data (Matthee and Davis, 2001;Cai et al, 2007;Gu et al, 2007;Ginja et al, 2010); b) nuclear DNA sequence data and microsatellites (Kikkawa et al, 2003;MacEachern et al, 2009), and c) DNA fingerprinting and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) techniques (Vasil'ev et al, 2002;Buntjer et al, 2002).…”

Genetic characterization of Northeast Asian cattle based on sequence polymorphisms in the complete mitochondrial genome

“…Table 2 shows the number of polymorphic sites for different mtDNA regions and regional variation among the 103 B. taurus mtDNA sequences. The D-loop (mtDNA control region) and cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene regions contain abundant phylogenetic information and are appeared to be good markers for studying genetic differentiation and phylogenetic relationships among species within the same genus or family [3,[13][14][15][16]. Of 922 (D-loop) and 1140 (Cyt b) DNA sequences in the 10 individual B.…”