Genetic diversity of five goat breeds in China based on microsatellite markers

Abstract

The genetic diversity of five goat breeds in China was surveyed using 15 microsatellites. The five goat breeds included Tangshan dairy goat (TSD), Liaoning cashmere goat (LNC), Nanjiang yellow goat (NJY), Chengde  polled goat (CDP) and Leizhou black goat (LZB). The mean polymorphism information content value (PIC) of  the populations ranged from 0.6606 to 0.8405. The mean heterozygosity (H) of the populations ranged from  0.7936 to 0.8202. The mean number of effective allele (Ne) of the populations ranged from 5.3373 to 5.8812 and the coefficient of genetic differentiation between breeds was 0.0620. It was suggested that the five goat  populations have abundant genetic diversity and extensive genetic basis, with limited inbreeding, especially in Leizhou black goat. The unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) dendrogram based  on the Nei's standard genetic distance indicated that Tangshan dairy goat, Chengde polled goat and Liaoning  cashmere goat breeds / populations clustered together. The Nanjiang yellow goat and Leizhou black goat  populations clustered together, consistent with the geographical distribution of goat breeds.

Key words: Goat, microsatellite, genetic diversity, clustering.