Origin and diversity of North European sheep breeds
7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 19-23, 2002, Montpellier, France Session 26. Management of genetic diversity Abstract of N° 26-38
MITOCHONDRIAL DIFFERENTIATION IN NORTHERN EUROPEAN SHEEP.
M. Tapio1, I. Grigaliunaite, L.E. Holm, S. Jeppsson, J. Kantanen, I. Miceikiene,
I. Olsaker, H. Viinalass and E. Eythorsdottir.
1Agrifood Research Finland
(MTT), Animal Production, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland.
Differentiation in 32 short- and long-tailed sheep breeds in Northern Europe
was studied by sequencing of mitochondrial control region. Breeds were grouped
into four categories :
Atlantic short-tailed breeds, Atlantic long-tailed breeds, Baltic Sea region
short-tailed breeds and Baltic Sea region long-tailed breeds. Analysis of
molecular variation showed significant differentiation between the four
groups (FCT = 0.036) and between populations within the groups (FSC = 0.289). Pairwise comparisons showed that the Baltic long-tailed breed group
was not differentiated from the Baltic short-tailed group or the Atlantic
long-tailed group. This agrees with prior knowledge about ancestry of breeds
belonging to Baltic long-tailed group.
The results encourage further dissection of mtDNA variation on Northern
European sheep.
Created by ThEP and EE Edited by Emma Eythorsdottir for the North SheD group.
Agricultural Research Institute of Iceland.