The genetic structure of cattle populations (Bos taurus) in northern Eurasia and the neighbouring Near Eastern regions: implications for breeding strategies and conservation

Abstract

We investigated the genetic structure and variation of 21 populations of cattle (Bos taurus) in northern Eurasia and the neighbouring Near Eastern regions of the Balkan, the Caucasus and Ukraine employing 30 microsatellite markers. By analyses of population relationships, as well as by a Bayesian-based clustering approach, we identified a genetic distinctness between populations of modern commercial origin and those of native origin. Our data suggested that northern European Russia represents the most heavily colonized area by modern commercial cattle. Further genetic mixture analyses based on individual assignment tests found that native Red Steppe cattle were also employed in the historical breeding practices in Eastern Europe, most probably for incorporating their strong and extensive adaptability. In analysis of molecular variance, within-population differences accounted for approximately 90% of the genetic variation. Despite some correspondence between geographical proximity and genetic similarity, genetic differentiation was observed to be significantly associated with the difference in breeding purpose among the European populations (percentage of variance among groups and significance: 2.99%, P = 0.02). Our findings give unique genetic insight into the historical patterns of cattle breeding practices in the former Soviet Union. The results identify the neighbouring Near Eastern regions such as the Balkan, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and the isolated Far Eastern Siberia as areas of 'genetic endemism', where cattle populations should be given conservation priority. The results will also be of importance for cost-effective management of their future utilization.

Maternal and paternal genealogy of Eurasian taurine cattle (Bos taurus)

“…In previous studies for autosomal markers (Tapio et al, 2006a;Li et al, 2007a), the mean F ST for autosomal data was 0.0948.…”

“…We compared interpopulation F ST estimates of the Y-chromosomal microsatellites corrected for the four-times smaller effective population size (Pérez-Lezaun et al, 1997), with F ST estimates of 20 autosomal microsatellites. In the F ST calculations computed with FSTAT1.2 (Goudet, 1995), the data set comprised the 40 taurine breeds analysed here for the Y-chromosomal markers, plus previously published autosomal microsatellite data from Li et al (2007a) and Tapio et al (2006a). After the marker-based analyses, the allelic combinations of Y-chromosomal markers were recorded as haplotypes, and the number of haplotypes and haplotypic diversity (Nei, 1987) were calculated.…”

“…The Eurasian continent is inhabited by a large number of unique cattle breeds, like Busha cattle in the Balkan region, Eastern Finncattle in Northern Europe and Yakutian cattle in the Sahka Republic of the Russian Federation. On the basis of autosomal microsatellite data, these breeds have shown genetic divergence from modern commercial West European breeds, such as Black-and-White HolsteinFriesian and Red-and-White Ayrshire cattle (Li et al, 2007a). Yakutian cattle belong to the Turano-Mongolian breeds and have adapted to extreme cold climatic conditions (Li et al, 2007a;Granberg et al, 2009).…”

Revealing fine scale subpopulation structure in the Vietnamese H'mong cattle breed for conservation purposes

“…It is then important to take measures that promote management of the animal genetic resources. Many studies have evaluated conservation policies and prioritisation of breeds compared within each other [35-37]. The purposes and ways of in situ conservation programmes for farm animals are multi-fold (see, for example, FAO [38]) and generally include (1) providing a clear view of the status of the breed, through census of animals and survey of farmers, (2) minimising the rate of inbreeding, through practices such as rotational breeding, and (3) providing economic conditions for the development of the breed.…”

Soft Margin Trees

“…The aim is to discover relationships between species or breeds according to their genetic descriptions. Thus, [3] studied 50 indigenous cattle breeds from Africa; [4] clustered a total of 1272 termites representing 56 genetically distinct colonies in central North Carolina; [5] investigated the genetic structure and variation of 21 populations of cattle in northern Eurasia and the neighbouring Near Eastern regions; [6], in order to facilitate the assessments of epidemiological risks, showed the genetic structure of human populations using genotypes at 377 autosomal microsatellite loci in 1056 individuals from 52 populations.…”