GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED ETHIOPIAN INDIGENOUS CATTLE BREEDS USING MICROSATELLITE MARKERS

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate genetic diversity, population structure, and level of admixture of four Ethiopian cattle populations namely (Guraghe Gofa , Hamer, and Mursi). Sixteen microsatellite markers were used to assess the genetic diversity of the four ecotypes. Genomic DNA was extracted from bovine blood samples with a genomic DNA extraction salting out method. Ninety-one DNA samples from four (Guraghe (n = 25), Gofa (n = 25), Hamer (n = 25), and Mursi (n = 16)) Ethiopian cattle populations were genotyped. A total of 191 alleles were detected, ranging from 8 to 23 alleles per locus. The mean number of alleles and the observed and expected heterozygosity were 11.9, 0.053, and 0.79, respectively. The FIT, FIS, and FST overall F-statistics have mean values of 0.94, 0.94, and 0.096, respectively. The genetic variation between populations accounted for 9.6% of the total genetic variation. Gene flow (2.56) was observed in all four populations. Genetic distances, such as PCoA and dendrogram, reveal a close relationship between Hammer and Mursi as compared to Guraghe and Mursi. Factorial correspondence analysis (FCA) and the Structure analysis assigned four Ethiopian populations independently; however, Hamer and Mursi showed a relatively higher degree of admixture than Guraghe and Gofa. It can be concluded that Ethiopia's indigenous cattle populations have a high degree of genetic diversity; These results may be useful in determining current and future breeding programs as well as management and conservation strategies for Ethiopia's indigenous animal genetic resources.