scholarly journals Genomic characterisation and conservation genetics of the indigenous Irish Kerry cattle breed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Browett ◽  
Gillian McHugo ◽  
Ian W. Richardson ◽  
David A. Magee ◽  
Stephen D. E. Park ◽  
...  

AbstractKerry cattle are an endangered landrace heritage breed of cultural importance to Ireland. In the present study we have used genome-wide SNP data (Illumina® BovineSNP50 array) to evaluate genomic diversity within the Kerry cattle population and between Kerry cattle and other European cattle breeds. Visualisation of patterns of genetic differentiation and gene flow among cattle breeds using phylogenetic trees with ancestry graphs highlighted, in particular, historical gene flow from the British Shorthorn breed into the ancestral population of modern Kerry cattle. Principal component analysis (PCA) and genetic clustering emphasised the genetic distinctiveness of Kerry cattle relative to comparator British and European cattle breeds. Modelling of genetic effective population size (Ne) revealed a demographic trend of diminishing Ne over time and that recent estimated Ne values for the Kerry breed may be less than the threshold for sustainable genetic conservation. In addition, analysis of genome-wide autozygosity (FROH) showed that genomic inbreeding has increased significantly during the 20 years between 1992 and 2012. Finally, signatures of selection revealed genomic regions subject to natural and artificial selection as Kerry cattle adapted to the climate, physical geography and agro-ecology of southwest Ireland.Note 1: This is an Associate Editor (D.E.M) Inaugural Article submission to Frontiers in Genetics: Livestock GenomicsNote 2: British English language style preferred for publication of this article.

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maulik Upadhyay ◽  
Susanne Eriksson ◽  
Sofia Mikko ◽  
Erling Strandberg ◽  
Hans Stålhammar ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Native cattle breeds are important genetic resources given their adaptation to the local environment in which they are bred. However, the widespread use of commercial cattle breeds has resulted in a marked reduction in population size of several native cattle breeds worldwide. Therefore, conservation management of native cattle breeds requires urgent attention to avoid their extinction. To this end, we genotyped nine Swedish native cattle breeds with genome-wide 150 K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to investigate the level of genetic diversity and relatedness between these breeds. Results We used various SNP-based approaches on this dataset to connect the demographic history with the genetic diversity and population structure of these Swedish cattle breeds. Our results suggest that the Väne and Ringamåla breeds originating from southern Sweden have experienced population isolation and have a low genetic diversity, whereas the Fjäll breed has a large founder population and a relatively high genetic diversity. Based on the shared ancestry and the constructed phylogenetic trees, we identified two major clusters in Swedish native cattle. In the first cluster, which includes Swedish mountain cattle breeds, there was little differentiation among the Fjäll, Fjällnära, Swedish Polled, and Bohus Polled breeds. The second cluster consists of breeds from southern Sweden: Väne, Ringamåla and Swedish Red. Interestingly, we also identified sub-structuring in the Fjällnära breed, which indicates different breeding practices on the farms that maintain this breed. Conclusions This study represents the first comprehensive genome-wide analysis of the genetic relatedness and diversity in Swedish native cattle breeds. Our results show that different demographic patterns such as genetic isolation and cross-breeding have shaped the genomic diversity of Swedish native cattle breeds and that the Swedish mountain breeds have retained their authentic distinct gene pool without significant contribution from any of the other European cattle breeds that were included in this study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Senczuk ◽  
Salvatore Mastrangelo ◽  
Paolo Ajmone-Marsan ◽  
Zsolt Becskei ◽  
Paolo Colangelo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background During the Neolithic expansion, cattle accompanied humans and spread from their domestication centres to colonize the ancient world. In addition, European cattle occasionally intermingled with both indicine cattle and local aurochs resulting in an exclusive pattern of genetic diversity. Among the most ancient European cattle are breeds that belong to the so-called Podolian trunk, the history of which is still not well established. Here, we used genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data on 806 individuals belonging to 36 breeds to reconstruct the origin and diversification of Podolian cattle and to provide a reliable scenario of the European colonization, through an approximate Bayesian computation random forest (ABC-RF) approach. Results Our results indicate that European Podolian cattle display higher values of genetic diversity indices than both African taurine and Asian indicine breeds. Clustering analyses show that Podolian breeds share close genomic relationships, which suggests a likely common genetic ancestry. Among the simulated and tested scenarios of the colonization of Europe from taurine cattle, the greatest support was obtained for the model assuming at least two waves of diffusion. Time estimates are in line with an early migration from the domestication centre of non-Podolian taurine breeds followed by a secondary migration of Podolian breeds. The best fitting model also suggests that the Italian Podolian breeds are the result of admixture between different genomic pools. Conclusions This comprehensive dataset that includes most of the autochthonous cattle breeds belonging to the so-called Podolian trunk allowed us not only to shed light onto the origin and diversification of this group of cattle, but also to gain new insights into the diffusion of European cattle. The most well-supported scenario of colonization points to two main waves of migrations: with one that occurred alongside with the Neolithic human expansion and gave rise to the non-Podolian taurine breeds, and a more recent one that favoured the diffusion of European Podolian. In this process, we highlight the importance of both the Mediterranean and Danube routes in promoting European cattle colonization. Moreover, we identified admixture as a driver of diversification in Italy, which could represent a melting pot for Podolian cattle.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. Zinovieva ◽  
I. P. Sheiko ◽  
A. V. Dotsev ◽  
R. I. Sheiko ◽  
M. E. Mikhailova ◽  
...  

BMC Genomics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Z. Gebrehiwot ◽  
E. M. Strucken ◽  
H. Aliloo ◽  
K. Marshall ◽  
J. P. Gibson

Abstract Background Humpless Bos taurus cattle are one of the earliest domestic cattle in Africa, followed by the arrival of humped Bos indicus cattle. The diverse indigenous cattle breeds of Africa are derived from these migrations, with most appearing to be hybrids between Bos taurus and Bos indicus. The present study examines the patterns of admixture, diversity, and relationships among African cattle breeds. Methods Data for ~ 40 k SNPs was obtained from previous projects for 4089 animals representing 35 African indigenous, 6 European Bos taurus, 4 Bos indicus, and 5 African crossbred cattle populations. Genetic diversity and population structure were assessed using principal component analyses (PCA), admixture analyses, and Wright’s F statistic. The linkage disequilibrium and effective population size (Ne) were estimated for the pure cattle populations. Results The first two principal components differentiated Bos indicus from European Bos taurus, and African Bos taurus from other breeds. PCA and admixture analyses showed that, except for recently admixed cattle, all indigenous breeds are either pure African Bos taurus or admixtures of African Bos taurus and Bos indicus. The African zebu breeds had highest proportions of Bos indicus ancestry ranging from 70 to 90% or 60 to 75%, depending on the admixture model. Other indigenous breeds that were not 100% African Bos taurus, ranged from 42 to 70% or 23 to 61% Bos indicus ancestry. The African Bos taurus populations showed substantial genetic diversity, and other indigenous breeds show evidence of having more than one African taurine ancestor. Ne estimates based on r2 and r2adj showed a decline in Ne from a large population at 2000 generations ago, which is surprising for the indigenous breeds given the expected increase in cattle populations over that period and the lack of structured breeding programs. Conclusion African indigenous cattle breeds have a large genetic diversity and are either pure African Bos taurus or admixtures of African Bos taurus and Bos indicus. This provides a rich resource of potentially valuable genetic variation, particularly for adaptation traits, and to support conservation programs. It also provides challenges for the development of genomic assays and tools for use in African populations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 136-143
Author(s):  
N. Moravčíková ◽  
M. Simčič ◽  
G. Mészáros ◽  
J. Sölkner ◽  
V. Kukučková ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to analyse the genomic regions that have been target of natural selection with respect to identifying the loci responsible mainly for fitness traits across six alpine cattle breeds. The genome-wide scan for selection signatures was performed using genotyping data from totally 465 animals. After applying data quality control, overall 35 873 single nucleotide polymorphisms were useable for the subsequent analysis. The detection of genomic regions affected by natural selection was carried out using the approach of principal component analysis. The analysis was based on the assumption that markers extremely related to the population structure are also candidates for local adaptation potential of the population. Based on the expected false discovery rate equal to 10% up to 1138 loci were identified as outliers. The strongest signals of selection were found in genomic regions on BTA 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 13, and 22. Most genes located in the identified regions have been previously associated with immunity system as well as body growth and muscle formation that mainly reflect the pressure of both natural and artificial selection in respect to adaptation of analysed breeds to the local environmental conditions. The results also signalized that those regions represent a correlated selection response in way to maintain the fitness of analysed breeds.


2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Martín Pujolar ◽  
Mozes P. K. Blom ◽  
Andrew Hart Reeve ◽  
Jonathan D. Kennedy ◽  
Petter Zahl Marki ◽  
...  

AbstractTropical mountains harbor exceptional concentrations of Earth’s biodiversity. In topographically complex landscapes, montane species typically inhabit multiple mountainous regions, but are absent in intervening lowland environments. Here we report a comparative analysis of genome-wide DNA polymorphism data for population pairs from eighteen Indo-Pacific bird species from the Moluccan islands of Buru and Seram and from across the island of New Guinea. We test how barrier strength and relative elevational distribution predict population differentiation, rates of historical gene flow, and changes in effective population sizes through time. We find population differentiation to be consistently and positively correlated with barrier strength and a species’ altitudinal floor. Additionally, we find that Pleistocene climate oscillations have had a dramatic influence on the demographics of all species but were most pronounced in regions of smaller geographic area. Surprisingly, even the most divergent taxon pairs at the highest elevations experience gene flow across barriers, implying that dispersal between montane regions is important for the formation of montane assemblages.


The Auk ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph D Manthey ◽  
Stéphane Boissinot ◽  
Robert G Moyle

Abstract Evolutionary biologists have long used behavioral, ecological, and genetic data from contact zones between closely related species to study various phases of the speciation continuum. North America has several concentrations of avian contact zones, where multiple pairs of sister lineages meet, with or without hybridization. In a southern California contact zone, 2 species of woodpeckers, Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Dryobates nuttallii) and the Ladder-backed Woodpecker (D. scalaris), occasionally hybridize. We sampled these 2 species in a transect across this contact zone and included samples of their closest relative, the Downy Woodpecker (D. pubescens), to obtain large single nucleotide polymorphism panels using restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq). Furthermore, we used whole-genome resequencing data for 2 individuals per species to identify whether patterns of diversity inferred from RAD-seq were representative of whole-genome diversity. We found that these 3 woodpecker species are genomically distinct. Although low levels of gene flow occur between D. nuttallii and D. scalaris across the contact zone, there was no evidence for widespread genomic introgression between these 2 species. Overall patterns of genomic diversity from the RAD-seq and wholegenome datasets appear to be related to distributional range size and, by extension, are likely related to effective population sizes for each species.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily E. Puckett ◽  
Jason Munshi-South

ABSTRACTFossil evidence indicates that the globally-distributed brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) originated in northern China and Mongolia. Historical records report the human-mediated invasion of rats into Europe in the 1500s, followed by global spread due to European imperialist activity during the1600s-1800s. We analyzed 14 genomes representing seven previously identified evolutionary clusters and tested alternative demographic models to infer patterns of range expansion, divergence times, and changes in effective population (Ne) size for this globally important pest species. We observed three range expansions from the ancestral population that produced the Pacific (~4.8kya), eastern China (diverged ~0.55kya), and Southeast (SE) Asia (~0.53kya) lineages. Our model shows a rapid range expansion from SE Asia into the Middle East then continued expansion into central Europe 537 years ago (1478 AD). We observed declining Ne within all brown rat lineages from 150-1kya, reflecting population contractions during glacial cycles. Ne increased since 1kya in Asian and European, but not Pacific, evolutionary clusters. Our results support the hypothesis that northern Asia was the ancestral range for brown rats. We suggest that southward human migration across China between 800-1550s AD resulted in the introduction of rats to SE Asia, from which they rapidly expanded via existing maritime trade routes. Finally, we discovered that North America was colonized separately on both the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, yet by evolutionary clusters of vastly different ages and genomic diversity levels. Our results should stimulate discussions among historians and zooarcheologists regarding the relationship between humans and rats.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon H. Martin ◽  
John W. Davey ◽  
Chris D. Jiggins

Several methods have been proposed to test for introgression across genomes. One method tests for a genome-wide excess of shared derived alleles between taxa using Patterson?s D statistic, but does not establish which loci show such an excess or whether the excess is due to introgression or ancestral population structure. Several recent studies have extended the use of D by applying the statistic to small genomic regions, rather than genome-wide. Here, we use simulations and whole genome data from Heliconius butterflies to investigate the behavior of D in small genomic regions. We find that D is unreliable in this situation as it gives inflated values when effective population size is low, causing D outliers to cluster in genomic regions of reduced diversity. As an alternative, we propose a related statistic f̂d, a modified version of a statistic originally developed to estimate the genome-wide fraction of admixture. f̂d is not subject to the same biases as D, and is better at identifying introgressed loci. Finally, we show that both D and f̂d outliers tend to cluster in regions of low absolute divergence (dXY), which can confound a recently proposed test for differentiating introgression from shared ancestral variation at individual loci.


1970 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-312
Author(s):  
A.A. Zwane ◽  
A. Maiwashe ◽  
M.L. Makgahlela ◽  
A. Choudhury ◽  
J.F. Taylor ◽  
...  

Access to genotyping assays enables the identification of informative markers that discriminate between cattle breeds. Identification of these markers can assist in breed assignment, improvement and conservation. The objective of this study was to identify breed informative markers to discriminate between three South African indigenous cattle breeds. Data from BovineSNP50 and GeneSeek Genomic Profiler (GGP-80K) assays were generated for Afrikaner, Drakensberger and Nguni, and were analysed for their genetic differentiation. Hereford and Angus were included as outgroups. Breeds were differentiated using principal component analysis (PCA). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the breeds were determined when minor allele frequency (MAF) was ≥ 0.05. Breed-specific SNPs were identified using Reynolds Fst and extended Lewontin and Krakauer's (FLK) statistics. These SNPs were validated using three African breeds, namely N’Dama, Kuri and Zebu from Madagascar. PCA discriminated among the breeds. A larger number of polymorphic SNPs was detected in Drakensberger (73%) than in Afrikaner (56%) and Nguni (65%). No substantial numbers of informative SNPs (Fst ≥ 0.6) were identified among indigenous breeds. Eleven SNPs were validated as discriminating the indigenous breeds from other African breeds. This is because the SNPs on BovineSNP50 and GGP-80K assays were ascertained as being common in European taurine breeds. Lower MAF and SNP informativeness observed in this study limits the application of these assays in breed assignment, and could have other implications for genome-wide studies in South African indigenous breeds. Sequencing should therefore be considered to discover new SNPs that are common among indigenous South African breeds and also SNPs that discriminate among these indigenous breeds.


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