Immunogenetic and population genetic analyses of Iberian cattle |
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Authors: | K. K. Kidd W. H. Stone C. Crimella C. Carenzi M. Casati G. Rognoni |
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Affiliation: | Department of Human Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA;Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA;Institute of General Zoology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Milan, Milan 20133, Italy |
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Abstract: | Blood samples were collected from more than 100 animals in each of 2 Spanish cattle breeds (Retinto and De Lidia), 2 Portuguese breeds (Alentejana and Mertolenga), and American Longhorn cattle. All samples for the 4 Iberian breeds were tested for 20 polymorphic systems; American Longhorn were tested for 19 of the 20. For each breed an average inbreeding coefficient was estimated by a comparison of the observed and expected heterozygosity at 7 or 8 codominant systems tested. All breeds had positive values but only 3 breeds had estimates of inbreeding that were statistically significantly different from 0: De Lidia with = 0.17, Retinto with = 0.08 and Mertolenga with f = 0.05. The De Lidia breed especially may be suffering from inbreeding depression since this high value is greater than expected if all of the animals were progeny of half-sib matings. Genetic distances were calculated from the gene frequency data on these 5 breeds plus 9 other European breeds. Analyses of these distances show a closely related group of the 4 Iberian breeds and American Longhorn, confirming the close relationships among the Iberian breeds and the Iberian, probably Portuguese, origin of American Longhorn cattle. |
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Keywords: | cattle immunogenetics population genetics |
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