Genetic diversity in Barki sheep breed in its native tract in Egypt

Abstract EN

Nine microsatellite markers were used to investigate genetic variations among and within four subpopulations of Barki sheep breed from four different locations along the North-Western Coastal Zone (NWCZ) of Egypt.

The selected locations were ElHammam, Matrouh, Negeila and Salloum.

The nine microsatellites were BM757, BM8125, OarAE129, OarJMP29, OarVH72, ELT1, 320R, OB1 and OB2.

All markers used showed polymorphism overall studied subpopulations.

The total observed numbers of alleles in the four subpopulations were 61, 43, 30 and 56, respectively for all studied markers.

Expected heterozygosity was the highest in Salloum subpopulation (0.771).

The polymorphic information contents (PIC) were 0.696, 0.590, 0.516 and 0.744, respectively.

All studied subpopulations were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium showing significant excess of heterozygosity in the state of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium compared to heterozygosity in the state of mutation-drift equilibrium, indicating the presence of real genetic bottleneck.

All subpopulations showed positive inbreeding (FIS) when averaged across all loci.

The subpopulation of Matrouh had the highest FIS (0.470).

Genetic distance analysis divided the four subpopulations into two clusters, the first included ElHammam and Negeila, while the other included Matrouh and Salloum.

Differences in genetic distance and genetic identity between the studied subpopulations are indeed low, reflecting the great genetic similarity among them.