Search results for "BREEDS"
showing 10 items of 57 documents
The climatic and genetic heritage of Italian goat breeds with genomic SNP data
2021
Local adaptation of animals to the environment can abruptly become a burden when faced with rapid climatic changes such as those foreseen for the Italian peninsula over the next 70 years. Our study investigates the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations and links it with the environment and how genetics might evolve over the next 50 years. We used one of the largest national datasets including > 1000 goats from 33 populations across the Italian peninsula collected by the Italian Goat Consortium and genotyped with over 50 k markers. Our results showed that Italian goats can be discriminated in three groups reflective of the Italian geography and its geo-political situation prec…
Effects of Grazing Season on Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Fatty Acids of Nutritional Interest of Caciocavallo Palermitano Cheese
2022
The aim of this work was to evaluate, in the different production seasons of the year, the physico-chemical quality of an artisanal cheese traditionally obtained from autochthonous grazing cows, with particular reference to fatty acids (FA) of nutritional interest that play an important role in the risk or prevention of some human pathologies. For this purpose, cheeses were sampled in 11 farms, repeating the samplings in 3 different periods of the year (summer, autumn–winter, and spring) when the productive conditions of the pastures varied. The cheeses produced in the spring period, when cows ingest a greater amount of grazed forage, resulted in a more adequate composition of the main FA, …
Meta-Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Reveals Several Population Bottlenecks during Worldwide Migrations of Cattle
2014
Several studies have investigated the differentiation of mitochondrial DNA in Eurasian, African and American cattle as well as archaeological bovine material. A global survey of these studies shows that haplogroup distributions are more stable in time than in space. All major migrations of cattle have shifted the haplogroup distributions considerably with a reduction of the number of haplogroups and/or an expansion of haplotypes that are rare or absent in the ancestral populations. The most extreme case is the almost exclusive colonization of Africa by the T1 haplogroup, which is rare in Southwest Asian cattle. In contrast, ancient samples invariably show continuity with present-day cattle …
Genome wide linkage disequilibrium and genetic structure in Sicilian dairy sheep breeds
2014
Background The recent availability of sheep genome-wide SNP panels allows providing background information concerning genome structure in domestic animals. The aim of this work was to investigate the patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD), the genetic diversity and population structure in Valle del Belice, Comisana, and Pinzirita dairy sheep breeds using the Illumina Ovine SNP50K Genotyping array. Results Average r2 between adjacent SNPs across all chromosomes was 0.155 ± 0.204 for Valle del Belice, 0.156 ± 0.208 for Comisana, and 0.128 ± 0.188 for Pinzirita breeds, and some variations in LD value across chromosomes were observed, in particular for Valle del Belice and Comisana breeds. Ave…
Dog sperm swimming parameters analysed by computer-assisted semen analysis of motility reveal major breed differences
2019
Dogs have undergone an intensive artificial selection process ever since the beginning of their relationship with humans. As a consequence, a wide variety of well-defined breeds exist today. Due to the enormous variation in dog phenotypes and the unlikely chance of gene exchange between them, the question arises as to whether they should still be regarded as a single species or, perhaps, they be considered as different taxa that possess different reproductive traits. The aim of this study was therefore to characterize some male reproductive traits, focusing on kinematic characteristics of dog spermatozoa from several breeds. Thirty-seven dogs from the following breeds were used: Staffordshi…
On the origin of European sheep as revealed by the diversity of the Balkan breeds and by optimizing population-genetic analysis tools
2020
Background In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation. Results We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons. We detected clines, ancestral components and admixture by using variants of commo…
A comprehensive analysis of the genetic diversity and environmental adaptability in worldwide Merino and Merino-derived sheep breeds
2023
Abstract Background To enhance and extend the knowledge about the global historical and phylogenetic relationships between Merino and Merino-derived breeds, 19 populations were genotyped with the OvineSNP50 BeadChip specifically for this study, while an additional 23 populations from the publicly available genotypes were retrieved. Three complementary statistical tests, Rsb (extended haplotype homozygosity between-populations), XP-EHH (cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity), and runs of homozygosity (ROH) islands were applied to identify genomic variants with potential impact on the adaptability of Merino genetic type in two contrasting climate zones. Results The results indicate…
Phylogenetic analysis of Sicilian goats reveals a new mtDNA lineage.
2006
The mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) sequence of 67 goats belonging to the Girgentana, Maltese and Derivata di Siria breeds was partially sequenced in order to present the first phylogenetic characterization of Sicilian goat breeds. These sequences were compared with published sequences of Indian and Pakistani domestic goats and wild goats. Mitochondrial lineage A was observed in most of the Sicilian goats. However, three Girgentana haplotypes were highly divergent from the Capra hircus clade, indicating that a new mtDNA lineage in domestic goats was found.
Study of polymorphisms in the promoter region of ovine β-lactoglobulin gene and phylogenetic analysis among the Valle del Belice breed and other shee…
2012
The aim of this work was to sequence the promoter region of b-lactoglobulin (BLG) gene in four sheep breeds, in order to identify polymorphisms, infer and analyze haplotypes, and phylogenetic relationship among the Valle del Belice breed and the other three breeds considered as ancestors. Sequencing analysis and alignment of the obtained sequences showed the presence of 36 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and one deletion. A total of 22 haplotypes found in ‘‘best’’ reconstruction were inferred considering the 37 polymorphic sites identified. Haplotypes were used for the reconstruction of a phylogenetic tree using the Neighbor-Joining algorithm. The number of polymorphisms identified s…
A first comparative map of copy number variations in the sheep genome.
2011
article i nfo We carried out a cross species cattle-sheep array comparative genome hybridization experiment to identify copy number variations (CNVs) in the sheep genome analysing ewes of Italian dairy or dual-purpose breeds (Bagnolese, Comisana, Laticauda, Massese, Sarda, and Valle del Belice) using a tiling oligonucleotide array with ~385,000 probes designed on the bovine genome. We identified 135 CNV regions (CNVRs; 24 reported in more than one animal) covering ~10.5 Mb of the virtual sheep genome referred to the bovine genome (0.398%) with a mean and a median equal to 77.6 and 55.9 kb, respectively. A comparative analysis between the identified sheep CNVRs and those reported in cattle a…