Studies on Genetic Variability in Nellore Brown Sheep Using Microsatellite Markers

J. Sheeela Manjari; B. Punya Kumari; B. Ekambaram; Y. Ravindra Reddy; Amol J. Talokar; G. Bharathi

Authors

J. Sheeela Manjari Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
B. Punya Kumari Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
B. Ekambaram Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
Y. Ravindra Reddy Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
Talokar Amol J. Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
G. Bharathi Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupati-517502, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

Keywords:

Genetic Variability, Microsatellite markers, Nellore Brown Sheep

Abstract

Genetic variation in Nellore Brown sheep was investigated using 24 microsatellite loci. A total of fifty blood samples collected at random from unrelated Nellore Brown sheep maintained by farmers its breeding tract of Andhra Pradesh. A total of 216 alleles were identified in the study. The number of alleles at each locus varied from four (HUJ616) to thirteen (OarCP49) with a mean of 9.0. Allele size ranged from 75(OarCP49) to a maximum of 297 bp (HSC), while allele frequencies ranged from 0.0102 to 0.3980. The number of effective alleles, observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity range found to be 3.8757(HUJ616) to 9.6232 (OarCP49), 0.0408(BM1314) to 0.1429 (OarHH35, OarHH41) and 0.7420(HUJ616) to 0.896(OarCP49) with an overall mean of 6.78 ± 1.79, 0.0985 ± 0.025 and 0.8409 ± 0.046 alleles, respectively. All the loci found to be highly polymorphic and the PIC values ranged from 0.6945(HUJ616) to 0.8961(OarCP49) with a mean of 0.8240 ± 0.061. The inbreeding estimates obtained were all positive and varied from 0.8318(OarHH35) to 0.9534 (BM1314).The mean F_IS value of 0.8825 ± 0.03 indicated the deficiency of heterozygotes. The Chi-square test revealed that all the 24 loci were showing significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.