Genetic diversity and variability in Alpine sheep breeds

Dalvit, C.; Saccà, Elena; Cassandro, Martino; Gervaso, M.; Pastore, E.; Piasentier, Edi

doi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2008.09.005

Cited by 47 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Lack of differentiation between the Sicilian breeds could be due to geographic proximity, similarities in environment and breeding practices, but most likely due to past gene flow among them. These estimates of genetic differentiation are comparable to those reported by other authors for indigenous Ethiopian (F st = 0.046, Gizaw et al, 2007), Portuguese (F st = 0.049, Santos-Silva et al, 2008), and Alpine (F st = 0.057, Dalvit et al, 2008) sheep breeds and/or populations, but lower than those reported by Baumung et al (2006) in Austrian sheep breeds and Arora et al (2011) in Indian sheep breeds (0.080 and 0.111, respectively). Moreover, Lawson Handley et al (2007) in a study on European sheep breeds, including the COM and the SAR, reported that the Southern breeds are characterized by higher within-breed diversity, lower genetic differentiation, and higher level of heterozygosity than Northern breeds.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…In recent years, several microsatellite studies on sheep genetic diversity, population structure, genetic differentiation, and phylogenetic reconstruction aiming at identifying endangered populations as well as developing genetic conservation strategies have been published (Dalvit et al, 2008;Ligda et al, 2009;Arora et al, 2011). Aim of this study was to explore the genetic structure of the four Sicilian autochthonous sheep and one Italian breed, through the analysis of the genetic diversity within and across breeds, and determine their genetic relationship, using microsatellite markers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genetic diversity and population structure of Sicilian sheep breeds using microsatellite markers

Tolone

Mastrangelo

Rosa

et al. 2012

Small Ruminant Research

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a b s t r a c tGenetic diversity studies in domestic animals aim at evaluating genetic variation within and across breeds mainly for conservation purposes. In Sicily, dairy sheep production represents an important resource for hilly and mountain areas economy. Their milk is used for the production of traditional raw milk cheeses, sometimes protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses. In some cases, the quality of these products is linked to a specific breed, i.e. mono-breed labelled cheeses and it is therefore important to be able to distinguish the milk of a breed from that of others, in order to guarantee both the consumer and the breed itself. In order to investigate the genetic structure and to perform an assignment test, a total of 331 individuals (Barbaresca, BAR n = 57, Comisana, COM n = 65, Pinzirita, PIN n = 75, Sarda, SAR n = 64, and Valle del Belice, VDB n = 70) were analysed using a panel of 20 microsatellite markers. A total of 259 alleles were observed with average polymorphic information content equal to 0.76, showing that the microsatellites panel used was highly informative. Estimates of observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.65 in the BAR breed to 0.75 in the COM breed. The low value of genetic differentiation among breeds (F st = 0.049) may indicate that these breeds are little differentiated probably due to common history and breeding practices. The low F is and F it values indicated low level of inbreeding within and among breeds. The unrooted neighbor-joining dendrogram obtained from the Reynold's genetic distances, and factorial correspondence analysis revealed a separation between BAR and the other sheep breeds. Recent migration rates were estimated, showing that four out of the five breeds have not received a significant proportion of migrants. Only for the PIN breed a recent introgression rate from the VDB breed (7.2%) was observed. The Bayesian assignment test showed that BAR and SAR breeds had a more definite genetic structure (proportion of assignment of 92% and 86.6%, respectively), whereas the lowest assignment value was found in the PIN breed (67.1%). Our results indicated high genetic variability, low inbreeding and low genetic differentiation, except for BAR breed, and were in accordance with geographical location, history, and breeding practices. The low robustness of the assignment test makes it unfeasible for traceability purposes, due to the high level of admixture, in particular for COM, PIN and VDB.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity and population structure of Sicilian sheep breeds using microsatellite markers

Tolone

Mastrangelo

Rosa

et al. 2012

Small Ruminant Research

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“…Moreover, we found that sheep genetic diversity in this south European region was not lost, with values fitting the pattern of radiation of genetic variation from the Near East hot-spot (Tapio et al, 2010). For example, we found the MNA (range 6.03 to 8.6) to be within the range reported for Balkan pramenka breeds (Cínkulov et al, 2008) and alpine sheep (Dalvit et al, 2008). However, it was lower than that reported for Greek (Ligda et al, 2009) and Turkish sheep breeds (Gutierrez-Gil et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Genetic diversity and differentiation of 12 eastern Adriatic and western Dinaric native sheep breeds using microsatellites

Šalamon

Gutiérrez-Gil

Arranz

et al. 2014

Animal

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Nuclear genetic diversity and differentiation of 341 sheep belonging to 12 sheep breeds from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were examined. The aim of the study was to provide the understanding of the genetic structure and variability of the analysed pramenka sheep populations, and to give indications for conservation strategies based on the population diversity and structure information. The genetic variation of the sheep populations, examined at the nuclear level using 27 microsatellite loci, revealed considerable levels of genetic diversity, similar to the diversity found in other European indigenous low-production sheep breeds. Population-specific alleles were detected at most loci and in breeds analysed. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.643 (in Lika pramenka) to 0.743 (in Vlasic pramenka), and the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.646 (in Lika pramenka) to 0.756 (in Dalmatian pramenka). Significant inbreeding coefficients were found for half of the populations studied and ranged from 0.040 (Pag island sheep) to 0.091 (Kupres pramenka). Moderate genetic differentiation was found between the studied sheep populations. The total genetic variability observed between different populations was 5.29%, whereas 94.71% of the variation was found within populations. Cres island sheep, Lika pramenka and Istrian sheep were identified as the most distinct populations, which was confirmed by the factorial analysis of correspondence and supported through a bootstrapping adjustment to correct for the difference in the sample sizes. The population structure analysis distinguished 12 clusters for the 12 sheep breeds analysed. However, the cluster differentiation was low for Dalmatian, Vlasic, Stolac and Krk pramenka. This systematic study identified Lika pramenka and Rab island sheep as those with the lowest diversity, whereas Istrian sheep and Pag island sheep had the highest. Conservation actions are proposed for Istrian, Rab and Cres island sheep, Lika and Kupres pramenka because of high estimated coefficients of inbreeding.

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“…Ligda et al, (2009) have used 28 microsatellite markers to analyze genetic diversity and differentiation in 8 Greek sheep breeds. Dalvit et al, (2008) have used 19 microsatellite markers for genetic characterization of 8 sheep breeds from Italy, Germany and Slovenia. Dalvit et al, (2009) have used 19 microsatellite markers 5 for genetic variation and presence of breed substructure of four native sheep breeds from North Italy.…”

Section: Analysis Of Genetic Variation In Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%