African matrilineages in American Creole cattle: evidence of two independent continental

LIRON J.P.; BRAVI C.M.; MIROL P.M.; PERAL GARCIA P; GIOVAMBATTISTA G.

ANIMAL GENETICS

Blackwell

Año: 2006 p. 379 - 382

0268-9146

In order to clarify the historical origin and phylogeographic affinities of Creole cattle matrilineages throughout the American continent, we analyzed published D-loop mtDNA sequences (N= 454) from Creole, Iberian and African cattle breeds. The Western European haplogroup T3 was the most commonly found (63.6%) in American Creole cattle, followed by the African T1 (32.4%) and the Near Eastern T2 haplogroups (4%). None of the sequences belonged to the Bos indicus types. Within the African T1 haplogroup there are two defined clades, namely T1a and T1*, whose geographic distribution in America is clearly disjoint. The former is a highly divergent clade originally reported for Creole Cattle from Brazil and the Lesser Antilles, but whose geographic distribution in Africa remains unknown. In contrast, lineages attributable to T1* are restricted, in America, to the region colonized by the Spaniards. We propose a novel hypothesis for the origins of Creole cattle that summarizes all previously published historical and genetic data. While the African T1* fraction in Creole cattle may have arrived to America through the Iberian breeds, the divergent T1a lineages would have been introduced by Portuguese and other European Crowns from some unknown, not yet sampled African location. Further additional molecular studies are required for pinpointing the specific African regional source.