ANALYSIS OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND STRUCTURE OF BALUCHI SHEEP BY MICROSATELLITE MARKERS

Abstract

Population structure, diversity and genetic variation in two sub-populations of Baluchi sheep were estimated using seven microsatellite markers. A total of 503 individuals from two sub-populations were genotyped. Average number of allele per locus for all of the loci was 5.57. The range of allele per locus was from 4 in BM1853 and BMS1714 loci to 7 in MCM200 and RM0006 loci. The seven tested loci were all polymorphic in both sub-populations. The average observed heterozygosity over all the loci in each sub-population was less than the expected heterozygosity. Test of genotype frequencies’ deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) at each locus, over all the population, revealed significant departure from HWE. A slightly low rate of inbreeding within two sub-populations was noticed ( = 0.003). Low genetic differentiation was detected based on the estimated index between two sub-populations. The MANOVA analysis showed that about 2.4% of the total genetic variation was explained by population differences and 97.6 percent was corresponded to differences among individuals. The mean of polymorphism information content (PIC) value for all loci in Baluchi population was 0.65. In addition, the analysis of segregation in population showed that 85% of the individuals were informative indicating the relatively high polymorphism in selected marker in Baluchi sheep. Key words: DNA markers, Diversity, PIC value, Inbreeding