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

FERNANDEZ M.E.; ORTEGA MASAGUE M.F.; ORELLANA J.; VALDEZ F.; PEÑA S.; ROGBERG MUÑOZ A.; GUTIERREZ L.; BAUDOIN M.; POSIK D.M.; VILLEGAS CASTAGNASO, E.E.; MANRIQUE OSINAGA I.P.; HOLGADO F.D.; LIRON J.P,; GOSZCZYNSKI D.E.; PERAL GARCIA P.; BOMBLAT C.; SALAS E.; PEREIRA RICO J.A.C.; GIOVAMBATTISTA G.

Dublin

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

International Society for Animal Genetics

Latin American Creole cattle, direct descendants of bovines introduced by Europeans during the conquest of the Americas, are Taurine cattle adapted for more than 500 years of selection in tropical and subtropical environments. Although its population has suffered a drastic reduction during the last century, these native breeds still constitute a valuable animal genetic resource of this region. For this reason, the objective of the present study consisted in carrying out the genetic characterization of five Argentine and Bolivian cattle populations, for which 73 samples were analyzed using a 640K SNPs microarray. The results obtained showed an average expected heterozygosity value of 21.23, ranging from 20.40 to 24.60 in all populations. Molecular inbreeding, estimated through F index, evidenced that individual inbreeding values varied between -0.151 to 0.159. A subset of 4556, evenly-spaced SNPs among the 29 autosomal chromosomes, were filtered and used to analyze the relationship among breeds and estimated the breed admixture. The Principal component analysis evidenced that Creole cattle populations comprised a cluster that clearly diverge from the rest of the taurine and zebuine breeds included in the study. In addition, it showed low levels of cebu gene introgression and revealed the presence of two Creole components, one including the Argentine Creole breed and another comprising the Bolivian populations. In conclusion, the present results support the hypothesis that American creole cattle have unique characteristics and reinforce the need to conserve this valuable animal genetic resource.