Maternal Origins and Haplotype Diversity of Seven Russian Goat Populations Based on the D-loop Sequence Variability

Abstract

The territory of modern Russia lies on the crossroads of East and West and covers various geographical environments where diverse groups of local goats originated. In this work, we present the first study on the maternal origin of Russian local goats, including Altai Mountain (n = 9), Dagestan Downy (n = 18), Dagestan Local (n = 12), Dagestan Milk (n = 15), Karachaev (n = 21), Orenburg (n = 10), and Soviet Mohair (n = 7) breeds, based on 715 bp D-loop mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences. Saanen goats (n = 5) were used for comparison. Our findings reveal a high haplotype (HD = 0.843-1.000) and nucleotide diversity (π = 0.0112-0.0261). A total of 59 haplotypes were determined in the Russian goat breeds, in which all differed from the haplotypes of the Saanen goats. The haplotypes identified in Altai Mountain, Orenburg, Soviet Mohair, and Saanen goats were breed specific. Most haplotypes (56 of 59) were clustered together with samples belonging to haplogroup A, which was in accordance with the global genetic pattern of maternal origin seen in most goats worldwide. The haplotypes that were grouped together with rare haplogroups D and G were found in the Altai Mountain breed and haplogroup C was detected in the Soviet Mohair breed. Thus, our findings revealed that local goats might have been brought to Russia via various migration routes. In addition, haplotype sharing was found in aboriginal goat populations from overlapping regions, which might be useful information for their official recognition status.

Keywords: goat; haplogroup; livestock; local breeds; mtDNA; phylogeny.

Figure 1

Geographical map showing the sites where seven studied goat populations originated. The goat groups are presented as inverted triangles colored in red for Altai Mountain (ALTM), in orange for Dagestan Downy (DAGD), in pink for Orenburg (OREN), in blue for Soviet Mohair (SOVM), in light green for Dagestan Local (DAGL), in yellow for Dagestan Milk (DAGM), and in turquoise for Karachaev (KARA) breeds.

Figure 2

Median-joining networks for the 59 various haplotypes found in seven Russian goat populations and five haplotypes of the Saanen breed. Full names of breeds are shown in Table 1.

Figure 3

Bayesian phylogenetic tree based on 715 bp D-loop mtDNA sequences of seven Russian goat populations and reference haplotypes belonging to six goat haplogroups with Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica) as the outgroup. The following colors are used to highlight the haplogroups: green for haplogroup A, yellow-green for haplogroup B, turquoise for haplogroup C, blue for haplogroup D, pink for haplogroup F, and red for haplogroup G. Full names of breeds are shown in Table 1. Assignment of haplotypes to specific breeds is presented in Table 3.