Author/Authors :
Aljumaah، r.s نويسنده 1 Department of Animal Production, Food and Agriculture College, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia , , Al-Shaikh، m.a نويسنده 1 Department of Animal Production, Food and Agriculture College, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia , , Kibogo، h نويسنده 2 International Livestock Research Institute, Naivasha Road, Nairobi, Kenya , , Kwallah، a نويسنده 2 International Livestock Research Institute, Naivasha Road, Nairobi, Kenya , , Jianlin، h نويسنده 2 International Livestock Research Institute, Naivasha Road, Nairobi, Kenya , , Hanotte، o نويسنده 2 International Livestock Research Institute, Naivasha Road, Nairobi, Kenya , , Musthafa، m.m نويسنده 1 Department of Animal Production, Food and Agriculture College, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia , , Marikar، f.m.m.t نويسنده 1 Department of Animal Production, Food and Agriculture College, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia ,
Abstract :
Four Saudi Arabian indigenous sheep populations including Najdi, Hbsi, Arb, and Naemi were genotyped for 16 microsatellite markers recommended by the food and agriculture organization (FAO). This study aims to provide information on the genetic structure of the breeds analyzed and give indications and pro-posals for the cross breeding program. All loci were polymorphic in all populations and locus combinations were at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium except ILSTS044, ILSTS005, MAF209, HUJ616, OARFCB226 and SRCRSP09 (P < 0.05). There was substantial genetic variability within sheep populations, with average het-erozygosity range of 0.759-0.811 based on expected hetrozygosity. It was observed that the four sheep populations showing the lowest level of inbreeding on the basis of heterozygote deficiency. The lowest genetic distance (0.013) was obtained between Hbsi and Najdi and the highest genetic distance (0.146) be-tween Arb and Hbsi. Estimates of inbreeding coefficient (FIS) were significant for three breeds, except for Arb breeds (P < 0.05). The sequence results of the 16 microsatellite markers were sequenced and then phy-logenetic tree based on unbiased distances was drawn using MEGA 4. To study the genetic relationships among sheep populations, a principal coordinate analysis (PCA) based on Nei standard distances was per-formed which indicated a conservation program is needed in these sheep population since most of them are in danger of inbreeding.
