Genetic characterization of Argentine and Bolivian creole cattle using HD SNPs microarray

FERNANDEZ ME; ORTEGA MASAGUE MF; ORELLANA J; VALDEZ F; PEÑA S; ROGBERG MUÑOZ A; ET AL; GIOVAMBATTISTA G

Dublin

Conferencia; 36th International Society for Animal Genetics Conference; 2017

International Society for Animal Genetics

Latin American Creole cattle, direct descendants of bovinesintroduced by Europeans during the conquest of the Americas, areTaurine cattle adapted for more than 500 years of selection in tropicaland subtropical environments. Although its population has suffereda drastic reduction during the last century, these native breedsstill constitute a valuable animal genetic resource of this region. Forthis reason, the objective of the present study consisted in carryingout the genetic characterisation of five Argentine and Bolivian cattlepopulations, for which 73 samples were analysed using a 640KSNPs microarray. The results obtained showed an average expectedheterozygosity value of 21.23, ranging from 20.40 to 24.60 in allpopulations. Molecular inbreeding, estimated through F index, evidencedthat individual inbreeding values varied between -0.151 to0.159. A subset of 4556, evenly-spaced SNPs among the 29 autosomalchromosomes, were filtered and used to analyse the relationshipamong breeds and estimated the breed admixture. The Principalcomponent analysis evidenced that Creole cattle populationscomprised a cluster that clearly diverge from the rest of the taurineand zebuine breeds included in the study. In addition, it showedlow levels of cebu gene introgression and revealed the presence oftwo Creole components, one including the Argentine Creole breedand another comprising the Bolivian populations. In conclusion, thepresent results support the hypothesis that American creole cattlehave unique characteristics and reinforce the need to conserve thisvaluable animal genetic resource.