Genetic Structure and Differentiation of Three Indian Goat Breeds

Gene flow, genetic structure and differentiation of Kutchi, Mehsana and Sirohi breeds of goat from North-Western India were evaluated based on 25 microsatellite markers so as to support breed conservation and improvement decisions. The microsatellite genotyping was carried out using an automated DNA sequencer. The gene diversity across the studied loci for the Kutchi breed varied from 0.57 (ILST 065) to 0.93 (OarFCB 304, OMHC 1, ILSTS 058) with an overall mean of 0.79${\pm}$0.02. The corresponding values for Mehsana and Sirohi breeds were 0.16 (ILST 008) to 0.93 (OMHC 1, ILSTS 058) with an average of 0.76${\pm}$0.04, and 0.50 (ILSTS 029) to 0.94 (ILSTS 058) with an average of 0.78${\pm}$0.02, respectively. The Mehsana breed had lowest gene diversity among the 3 breeds studied. All the populations showed an overall significant heterozygote deficit ($F_{is}$). The Fis values were 0.26, 0.14 and 0.36 for Kutchi, Mehsana and Sirohi goat breeds, respectively. Kutchi and Mehsana were more differentiated (16%) followed by Mehsana and Sirohi (13%).The measures of standard genetic distance between pairs of breeds indicated that the lowest genetic distance was between Kutchi and Sirohi breeds (0.73) and the largest genetic distance was between Mehsana and Kutchi (1.0) followed by Sirohi and Mehsana (0.75) breeds. Mehsana and Kutchi are distinct breeds and this was revealed by the estimated genetic distance between them. All measures of genetic variation revealed substantial genetic variation in each of the populations studied, thereby showing good scope for their further improvement.