Detecting the existence of gene flow between Spanish and North African goats through a coalescent approach
- PMID: 27966592
- PMCID: PMC5155231
- DOI: 10.1038/srep38935
Detecting the existence of gene flow between Spanish and North African goats through a coalescent approach
Abstract
Human-driven migrations are one of the main processes shaping the genetic diversity and population structure of domestic species. However, their magnitude and direction have been rarely analysed in a statistical framework. We aimed to estimate the impact of migration on the population structure of Spanish and African goats. To achieve this goal, we analysed a dataset of 1,472 individuals typed with 23 microsatellites. Population structure of African and Spanish goats was moderate (mean FST = 0.07), with the exception of the Canarian and South African breeds that displayed a significant differentiation when compared to goats from North Africa and Nigeria. Measurement of gene flow with Migrate-n and IMa coalescent genealogy samplers supported the existence of a bidirectional gene flow between African and Spanish goats. Moreover, IMa estimates of the effective number of migrants were remarkably lower than those calculated with Migrate-n and classical approaches. Such discrepancies suggest that recent divergence, rather than extensive gene flow, is the main cause of the weak population structure observed in caprine breeds.
Figures


References
-
- Smith A. B. Origins and spread of pastoralism in Africa. Nomad. People 32, 91–105 (1993).
-
- Pereira F. & Amorim A. Origin and spread of goat pastoralism. In Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (ELS) John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester (2010).
-
- Pereira F. et al. Tracing the history of goat pastoralism: new clues from mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA in North Africa. Mol. Biol. Evol. 26, 2765–2773 (2009). - PubMed
-
- Pereira F., Pereira L., Van Asch B., Bradley D. G. & Amorim A. The mtDNA catalogue of all Portuguese autochthonous goat (Capra hircus) breeds: high diversity of female lineages at the western fringe of European distribution. Mol Ecol. 14, 2313–2318 (2005). - PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources
Miscellaneous