Year: 2018 | Month: June | Volume 8 | Issue 3
Genetic Structure and Differentiation of Different Strains of Nellore Sheep
Abstract:
The aim of present study was to assess the genetic diversity, genetic distance and establish genetic relationship between Palla, Jodipi, Nellore Brown and Macherla brown strains of Nellore sheep breed from their breeding tracts in Andhra Pradesh, India based on 24 ovine specific microsatellite markers so as to support breed conservation and improvement decisions. All used microsatellites were amplified well and exhibited polymorphism. A total of 200 unrelated DNA samples from Palla, Jodipi, Nellore brown and Macherla brown strains of Nellore sheep breed were genotyped to find out within and between strain genetic diversity indices. The mean number of alleles (11.71); effective number of alleles (8.74) reflected the existence of substantial amount of diversity among the strains. The mean value of Shannon index is 2.25, which clearly indicates high gene diversity within populations. Observed and expected heterozygosity in the populations were found to be 0.35 and 0.88 respectively. The mean estimates of FIS, FST and FIT were 0.890, 0.039 and 0.895 respectively. The Nei’s standard and D-genetic estimates using UPGMA method revealed low genetic distance and high genetic identity among the strains of Nellore sheep. All the four strains were genetically distinct and divided into three clusters with low degree of admixture at k = 4 based on Structure analysis. Ewans-Watterson test was conducted to test the neutrality of microsatellites. The rate of gene flow (Nm) between different strains of Nellore sheep was found to be 5.72.
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