Genetic Diversity and Effective Population Sizes of Eight Iranian Cattle Breeds

Author(s)
Strucken, Eva
Karimi, K
Esmailizadeh, AK
Moghaddar, Nasiroddin
Gondro, Cedric
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Iranian cattle breeds are currently under-represented in studies regarding genetic variability and conservation effort even though they are settled in a region that is believed to be one of two ancient cattle domestication centres. This study provides first population genetic parameters for eight Iranian cattle breeds collected from across the entire country to highlight the necessity for conservation programs. High density genome-wide SNP chips were used. None of the Iranian breeds showed a decreased heterozygosity compared to outgroup breeds (Holstein, Jersey, and Brahman) and inbreeding coefficients were low. Nevertheless, estimated effective population sizes were <10 for the Mazandarani, Sarabi, and Kermani breeds and it is predicted that most of the genetic variability will be lost within 20-30 generations if no intervention measures are taken. Effective population size estimates varied between chromosomes with occasional extremely high values, especially for Najdi, Pars, and Kermani which have high proportions of indicine ancestry as represented by the Brahman outgroup.
Citation
Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, v.21, p. 314-317
ISBN
9780646945545
ISSN
1328-3227
Link
Language
en
Publisher
Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG)
Title
Genetic Diversity and Effective Population Sizes of Eight Iranian Cattle Breeds
Type of document
Conference Publication
Entity Type
Publication

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