scholarly journals Short Communication: A Within- and Across-country Assessment of the Genomic Diversity and Autozygosity of South African and Eswatini Nguni Cattle

Author(s):  
Simon Frederick Lashmar ◽  
Carina Visser ◽  
Moses Okpeku ◽  
Farai Catherine Muchadeyi ◽  
Ntanganedzeni Olivia Mapholi ◽  
...  

Abstract In southern Africa, the Nguni cattle breed is classified as an indigenous and transboundary animal genetic resource that manifests unique adaptation abilities across distinct agroecological zones. The genetic integrity of various ecotypes is under potential threat due to both indiscriminate crossbreeding and uncontrolled inbreeding. The aim of this study was to assess the genetic diversity and autozygosity that exists both across countries (ES: eSwatini; SA: South Africa) and within-country (SA), between purebred stud animals (SA-S) and research herds (SA-R). Subsets of 96 ES, 96 SA-S and 96 SA-R genotyped for 40 930 common SNPs were used to study inbreeding, runs of homozygosity (ROH) and heterozygosity (ROHet) profiles as well as population structure. The highest proportion (0.513) of the 3 595 ROH was <4Mb in length, while the majority (0.560) of the 4 409 ROHet segments fell within the 0.5-1Mb length category. Inbreeding coefficients indicated low inbreeding (FROH range: 0.025 for SA-S to 0.029 for SA-R). Principal component (PCA) and population structure (K=5) analyses illustrated genomic distinctiveness between SA and ES populations, greater admixture for SA-R (mean±standard deviation proportion shared=0.631±0.353) compared to SA-S (mean±standard deviation proportion shared=0.741±0.123), and three subpopulations for ES. Overall, results illustrated that genetic distinctiveness in the Nguni resulted from both geographic isolation and exposure to different production strategies. Although no impending threat to genetic diversity was observed, further loss should be monitored to prevent endangerment of unique and beneficial indigenous resources.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wang ◽  
Chunyan Ma ◽  
Longling Ouyang ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Ming Zhao ◽  
...  

AbstractIn order to provide valuable guidelines for the conservation of germplasm of Lateolabrax maculatus, the genetic diversity and population structure analysis were evaluated for eight geographic populations along coastal regions of China, using 11 microsatellite DNA markers. The genetic parameters obtained showed that, eight populations can be clustered into two groups, the Northern group and the Southern group, concordant with their geographical positions. The UPGMA tree constructed according to the Nei’s genetic distance along with the structure analysis and discriminant analysis of principal component also supported this result. This might be explained by the geographic separation and the divergent environmental conditions among the populations. It's worth noting that, QD (Qingdao) population from northern area was assigned to the Southern group and showed a close genetic relationship and similar genetic constitution with the southern populations. We speculated that large scales of anthropogenic transportation of wild fries from QD populations to the southern aquaculture areas in history should be the primary cause. The populations from GY (Ganyu), RD (Rudong) and BH (Binhai) had higher genetic diversity and showed limited genetic exchange with other populations, indicating better conservation of the natural resources in these regions. All populations were indicated to have experienced bottleneck events in history.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1083-1092
Author(s):  
S Goitom ◽  
M.G. Gicheha ◽  
F.K. Njonge ◽  
N Kiplangat

Indigenous cattle play a vital role in subsistence and livelihood of pastoral producers in Eritrea. In order to optimally utilize and conserve these valuable indigenous cattle genetic resources, the need to carry out an inventory of their genetic diversity was recognized. This study assessed the genetic variability, population structure and admixture of the indigenous cattle populations (ICPs) of Eritrea using a genotype by sequencing (GBS) approach. The authors genotyped 188 animals, which were sampled from 27 cattle populations in three diverse agro-ecological zones (western lowlands, highlands and eastern lowlands). The genome-wide analysis results from this study revealed genetic diversity, population structure and admixture among the ICPs. Averages of the minor allele frequency (AF), observed heterozygosity (HO), expected heterozygosity (HE), and inbreeding coefficient (FIS) were 0.157, 0.255, 0.218, and -0.089, respectively. Nei’s genetic distance (Ds) between populations ranged from 0.24 to 0.27. Mean population differentiation (FST) ranged from 0.01 to 0.30. Analysis of molecular variance revealed high genetic variation between the populations. Principal component analysis and the distance-based unweighted pair group method and arithmetic mean analyses revealed weak substructure among the populations, separating them into three genetic clusters. However, multi-locus clustering had the lowest cross-validation error when two genetically distinct groups were modelled. This information about genetic diversity and population structure of Eritrean ICPs provided a basis for establishing their conservation and genetic improvement programmes. Keywords: genetic variability, molecular characterization, population differentiation


PLoS Genetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. e1009665
Author(s):  
Olivier François ◽  
Clément Gain

Wright’s inbreeding coefficient, FST, is a fundamental measure in population genetics. Assuming a predefined population subdivision, this statistic is classically used to evaluate population structure at a given genomic locus. With large numbers of loci, unsupervised approaches such as principal component analysis (PCA) have, however, become prominent in recent analyses of population structure. In this study, we describe the relationships between Wright’s inbreeding coefficients and PCA for a model of K discrete populations. Our theory provides an equivalent definition of FST based on the decomposition of the genotype matrix into between and within-population matrices. The average value of Wright’s FST over all loci included in the genotype matrix can be obtained from the PCA of the between-population matrix. Assuming that a separation condition is fulfilled and for reasonably large data sets, this value of FST approximates the proportion of genetic variation explained by the first (K − 1) principal components accurately. The new definition of FST is useful for computing inbreeding coefficients from surrogate genotypes, for example, obtained after correction of experimental artifacts or after removing adaptive genetic variation associated with environmental variables. The relationships between inbreeding coefficients and the spectrum of the genotype matrix not only allow interpretations of PCA results in terms of population genetic concepts but extend those concepts to population genetic analyses accounting for temporal, geographical and environmental contexts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda G. Díaz ◽  
Maria I. Zucchi ◽  
Alessandro. Alves-Pereira ◽  
Caléo P. de Almeida ◽  
Aline C. L. Moraes ◽  
...  

AbstractAcrocomia (Arecaceae) is a genus widely distributed in tropical and subtropical America that has been achieving economic interest due to the great potential of oil production of some of its species. In particular A. aculeata, due to its vocation to supply oil with the same productive capacity as the oil palm even in areas with water deficit. Although eight species are recognized in the genus, the taxonomic classification based on morphology and geographic distribution is still controversial. Knowledge about the genetic diversity and population structure of the species is limited, which has limited the understanding of the genetic relationships and the orientation of management, conservation, and genetic improvement activities of species of the genus. In the present study, we analyzed the genomic diversity and population structure of seven species of Acrocomia including 117 samples of A. aculeata covering a wide geographical area of occurrence, using single nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers originated from Genotyping By Sequencing (GBS). The genetic structure of the Acrocomia species were partially congruent with the current taxonomic classification based on morphological characters, recovering the separation of the species A. aculeata, A. totai, A. crispa and A. intumescens as distinct taxonomic groups. However, the species A. media was attributed to the cluster of A. aculeata while A. hassleri and A. glauscescens were grouped together with A. totai. The species that showed the highest and lowest genetic diversity were A. totai and A. media, respectively. When analyzed separately, the species A. aculeata showed a strong genetic structure, forming two genetic groups, the first represented mainly by genotypes from Brazil and the second by accessions from Central and North American countries. Greater genetic diversity was found in Brazil when compared to the other countries. Our results on the genetic diversity of the genus are unprecedented, as is also establishes new insights on the genomic relationships between Acrocomia species. It is also the first study to provide a more global view of the genomic diversity of A. aculeata. We also highlight the applicability of genomic data as a reference for future studies on genetic diversity, taxonomy, evolution and phylogeny of the Acrocomia genus, as well as to support strategies for the conservation, exploration and breeding of Acrocomia species and in particular A. aculeata.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1309
Author(s):  
Veronika Kharzinova ◽  
Arsen Dotsev ◽  
Anastasiya Solovieva ◽  
Olga Sergeeva ◽  
Georgiy Bryzgalov ◽  
...  

To examine the genetic diversity and population structure of domestic reindeer, using the BovineHD BeadChip, we genotyped reindeer individuals belonging to the Nenets breed of the five main breeding regions, the Even breed of the Republic of Sakha, the Evenk breed of the Krasnoyarsk and Yakutia regions, and the Chukotka breed of the Chukotka region and its within-breed ecotype, namely, the Chukotka–Khargin, which is bred in Yakutia. The Chukotka reindeer was shown to have the lowest genetic diversity in terms of the allelic richness and heterozygosity indicators. The principal component analysis (PCA) results are consistent with the neighbor-net tree topology, dividing the reindeer into groups according to their habitat location and origin of the breed. Admixture analysis indicated a genetic structuring of two groups of Chukotka origin, the Even breed and most of the geographical groups of the Nenets breed, with the exception of the Murmansk reindeer, the gene pool of which was comprised of the Nenets and apparently the native Sami reindeer. The presence of a genetic component of the Nenets breed in some reindeer inhabiting the Krasnoyarsk region was detected. Our results provide a deeper insight into the current intra-breeding reindeer genetic diversity, which is an important requirement for future reindeer herding strategies and for animal adaptation to environmental changes.


Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunju Seo ◽  
Kipoong Kim ◽  
Tae-Hwan Jun ◽  
Jinsil Choi ◽  
Seong-Hoon Kim ◽  
...  

Cowpea is one of the most essential legume crops providing inexpensive dietary protein and nutrients. The aim of this study was to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of global and Korean cowpea germplasms. A total of 384 cowpea accessions from 21 countries were genotyped with the Cowpea iSelect Consortium Array containing 51,128 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). After SNP filtering, a genetic diversity study was carried out using 35,116 SNPs within 376 cowpea accessions, including 229 Korean accessions. Based on structure and principal component analysis, a total of 376 global accessions were divided into four major populations. Accessions in group 1 were from Asia and Europe, those in groups 2 and 4 were from Korea, and those in group 3 were from West Africa. In addition, 229 Korean accessions were divided into three major populations (Q1, Jeonra province; Q2, Gangwon province; Q3, a mixture of provinces). Additionally, the neighbor-joining tree indicated similar results. Further genetic diversity analysis within the global and Korean population groups indicated low heterozygosity, a low polymorphism information content, and a high inbreeding coefficient in the Korean cowpea accessions. The population structure analysis will provide useful knowledge to support the genetic potential of the cowpea breeding program, especially in Korea.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1193
Author(s):  
Clementine Namazzi ◽  
Julius Pyton Sserumaga ◽  
Swidiq Mugerwa ◽  
Martina Kyalo ◽  
Collins Mutai ◽  
...  

Brachiaria (syn. Urochloa) grass is an important tropical forage of African origin that supports millions of livestock and wildlife in the tropics. Overgrazing, conversion of grasslands for crop production and non-agricultural uses, and the introduction of improved forages have threatened the natural diversity of Brachiaria grass in Uganda. This study established a national collection of Brachiaria ecotypes in Uganda and analyzed them for genetic diversity and population structure using 24 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers. These markers had a high discriminating ability with an average polymorphism information content (PIC) of 0.89 and detected 584 alleles in 99 ecotypes. Analysis of molecular variance revealed a high within populations variance (98%) indicating a high gene exchange or low genetic differentiation (PhiPT = 00.016) among the ecotype populations. The Bayesian model based clustering algorithm showed three allelic pools in Ugandan ecotypes. The principal component analysis (PCA) of ecotypes, and Neighbor-joining (NJ) tree of ecotypes and six commercial cultivars showed three main groups with variable membership coefficients. About 95% of ecotype pairs had Rogers’ genetic distance above 0.75, suggesting most of them were distantly related. This study confirms the high value of these ecotypes in Brachiaria grass conservation and improvement programs in Uganda and elsewhere.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Jiang ◽  
Song Yan ◽  
Weichao Ren ◽  
Nannan Xing ◽  
Hongyuan Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Bupleurum (named “Chai-hu”) is an important traditional Chinese medicine resource in China. It has been widely used since ancient times and has antipyretic, analgesic and cholagogic functions, but there is little research on its genetic diversity. In this study, genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was used to detect SNP loci in 39 Bupleurum germplasm resources from different regions in China and analyse their genetic diversity. A total of 25.1 Gb of data was obtained by sequencing, with an average of 0.64 Gb per sample. After screening, 83898 high-quality SNPs were obtained. The results of genetic research were obtained by phylogenetic tree, principal component analysis and population structure analysis, and the 39 experimental materials were divided into three groups. The average observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity of Bupleurum populations were 0.24 and 0.17, respectively, indicating that Bupleurum populations from five different provinces had a low level of genetic diversity. Population nucleotide diversity analysis and analysis of molecular variance showed that the percentage of intrapopulation variation was 120.88%, while the percentage of interpopulation variation was only 2.46%. There was relative aggregation of Bupleurum samples with the same geographical origin, but the division of population structure was not completely correlated with sample origin. The results showed that the genetic diversity of the materials was low and that the genetic variation was narrow. This provides a good basis for the genetic breeding and protection of species diversity of Bupleurum.


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