• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.7
• /
• pp.939-945
• /
• 2003

Seventeen Chinese indigenous pig breeds and three introduced pig breeds had been carried out by means of vertical polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). According to the results, eight serum protein loci were highly polymorphic except Pi-2 and Cp. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of Hpx was the highest (0.5268), while that of Cp was the lowest (0.0257). The population genetic variation index showed that about 84% genetic variation existed in the population, and the rest of 16% distributed between the populations. The genetic variation of Yimeng black pig and Duroc were the highest and the lowest, respectively. The genetic variation of Chinese indigenous pig breeds was much more than that of exotic groups. Genetic distance results showed that Chinese indigenous pig breeds were classified into four groups with the three introduced pig breeds clustered into another group. The results also supported the geographic distribution of Chinese indigenous pig breeds in certain extent.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.7
• /
• pp.911-921
• /
• 2015

At least 150 indigenous African cattle breeds have been named, but the majority of African cattle populations remain largely uncharacterized. As cattle breeds and populations in Africa adapted to various local environmental conditions, they acquired unique features. We know now that the history of African cattle was particularly complex and while several of its episodes remain debated, there is no doubt that African cattle population evolved dramatically over time. Today, we find a mosaic of genetically diverse population from the purest Bos taurus to the nearly pure Bos indicus. African cattle are now found all across the continent, with the exception of the Sahara and the river Congo basin. They are found on the rift valley highlands as well as below sea level in the Afar depression. These unique livestock genetic resources are in danger to disappear rapidly following uncontrolled crossbreeding and breed replacements with exotic breeds. Breeding improvement programs of African indigenous livestock remain too few while paradoxically the demand of livestock products is continually increasing. Many African indigenous breeds are endangered now, and their unique adaptive traits may be lost forever. This paper reviews the unique known characteristics of indigenous African cattle populations while describing the opportunities, the necessity and urgency to understand and utilize these resources to respond to the needs of the people of the continent and to the benefit of African farmers.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.441-444
• /
• 2004

The genetic diversities and relationships of 10 Chinese indigenous pig breeds and three exotic pig breeds have been evaluated using 26 microsatellites recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization & the International Society of Animal Genetics (FAO-ISAG). The allele frequencies, genetic heterozygosity (H) and polymorphism information content (PIC) have been calculated. The results showed that genetic diversity of Chinese indigenous pig breeds is higher than that of the introduced pig breeds. The clustering of 10 breeds is generally consistent with their geographical distribution.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.12
• /
• pp.1905-1911
• /
• 2020

Objective: Tibetan pigs, an excellent species unique to China, face serious threats, which in turn affects the development and utilization of the outstanding advantages of plateau hypoxia adaptability and reduces their genetic diversity. Therefore, a discussion of measures to conserve this genetic resource is necessary. The method, based on genetic diversity, genetic divergence and total genetic contribution rate of population, reflects the priority conservation order and varies depending on the three different purposes of conservation. Methods: We analyzed mitochondrial DNA control region (D-loop) variation in 1,201 individuals from nine Tibetan pig populations across five provinces and downloaded 564 mtDNA D-loop sequences from three indigenous pig breeds in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan Provinces distributed near the Tibetan pigs. Results: We analyzed three different aspects: Changdu Tibetan pigs have the highest genetic diversity, and from the perspective of genetic diversity, the priority conservation is Changdu Tibetan pigs. Hezuo Tibetan pigs have the highest genetic contribution, so the priority conservation is Hezuo Tibetan pigs in the genetic contribution aspect. Rkaze Tibetan pigs were severely affected by indigenous pig breeds, so if considering from the perspective of introgression, the priority conservation is Rkaze Tibetan pigs. Conclusion: This study evaluated genetic diversity and comprehensively assessed conservation priority from three different aspects in nine Tibetan pig populations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.613-619
• /
• 2005

Indigenous Yakutian cattle' adaptation to the hardest subarctic conditions makes them a valuable genetic resource for cattle breeding in the Siberian area. Since early last century, crossbreeding between native Yakutian cattle and imported Simmental and Kholmogory breeds has been widely adopted. In this study, variations at 22 polymorphic microsatellite loci in 5 populations of Yakutian, Kholmogory, Simmental, Yakutian-Kholmogory and Yakutian-Simmental cattle were analysed to estimate the genetic contribution of Yakutian cattle to the two hybrid populations. Three statistical approaches were used: the weighted least-squares (WLS) method which considers all allele frequencies; a recently developed implementation of a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method called likelihood-based estimation of admixture (LEA); and a model-based Bayesian admixture analysis method (STRUCTURE). At population-level admixture analyses, the estimate based on the LEA was consistent with that obtained by the WLS method. Both methods showed that the genetic contribution of the indigenous Yakutian cattle in Yakutian-Kholmogory was small (9.6% by the LEA and 14.2% by the WLS method). In the Yakutian-Simmental population, the genetic contribution of the indigenous Yakutian cattle was considerably higher (62.8% by the LEA and 56.9% by the WLS method). Individual-level admixture analyses using STRUCTURE proved to be more informative than the multidimensional scaling analysis (MDSA) based on individual-based genetic distances. Of the 9 Yakutian-Simmental animals studied, 8 showed admixed origin, whereas of the 14 studied Yakutian-Kholmogory animals only 2 showed Yakutian ancestry (>5%). The mean posterior distributions of individual admixture coefficient (q) varied greatly among the samples in both hybrid populations. This study revealed a minor existing contribution of the Yakutian cattle in the Yakutian-Kholmogory hybrid population, but in the Yakutian-Simmental hybrid population, a major genetic contribution of the Yakutian cattle was seen. The results reflect the different crossbreeding patterns used in the development of the two hybrid populations. Additionally, molecular evidence for differences among individual admixture proportions was seen in both hybrid populations, resulting from the stochastic process in crossing over generations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.27 no.10
• /
• pp.1381-1386
• /
• 2014

In spite of variation in coat color, size, and production traits among indigenous Bangladeshi cattle populations, genetic differences among most of the populations have not been investigated or exploited. In this study, we used a high-density bovine single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) 80K Bead Chip derived from Bos indicus breeds to assess genetic diversity and population structure of 2 Bangladeshi zebu cattle populations (red Chittagong, n = 28 and non-descript deshi, n = 28) and a semi-domesticated population (gayal, n = 17). Overall, 95% and 58% of the total SNPs (69,804) showed polymorphisms in the zebu and gayal populations, respectively. Similarly, the average minor allele frequency value was as high 0.29 in zebu and as low as 0.09 in gayal. The mean expected heterozygosity varied from $0.42{\pm}0.14$ in zebu to $0.148{\pm}0.14$ in gayal with significant heterozygosity deficiency of 0.06 ($F_{IS}$) in the latter. Coancestry estimations revealed that the two zebu populations are weakly differentiated, with over 99% of the total genetic variation retained within populations and less than 1% accounted for between populations. Conversely, strong genetic differentiation ($F_{ST}=0.33$) was observed between zebu and gayal populations. Results of population structure and principal component analyses suggest that gayal is distinct from Bos indicus and that the two zebu populations were weakly structured. This study provides basic information about the genetic diversity and structure of Bangladeshi cattle and the semi-domesticated gayal population that can be used for future appraisal of breed utilization and management strategies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.277-281
• /
• 2003

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLPs) markers were used to investigate the genetic variation in six autochthonous goat populations distributed in the middle and lower Yangtze River valley. The goat populations were Chengdu Grey Goat (CGG), Chuandong White Goat (CWG), Banjiao Goat (BG), Matou Goat (MG), Hui Goat (HG) and Yangtze River Delta White Goat (YRDWG). A total of 180 individuals (30 per population) were analysed using ten selected AFLP primer combinations that produced 78 clear polymorphism loci. The variability at AFLP loci was largely maintained within populations, as indicated by the average genetic similarity, and they were ranged from 0.745 to 0.758 within populations and 0.951 to 0.970 between populations. No breed specific markers were identified. Cluster analysis based on Nei' genetic distance between populations indicated that Chengdu Grey Goat is the most distant population, while CWG and YROWG were the closest populations, followed by BG, HG and MG. Genetic diversity of the goat populations didn' confirm what was expected on the basis of their geographical location, which may reflect undocumented migrations and gene flows and identify an original genetic resource.

• Plant Breeding and Biotechnology
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.134-142
• /
• 2017

Resource plants are important and have strong potential for a variety of utilities as crops or pharmaceutical materials. However, most resource plants remain wild and thus their utility for breeding and biotechnology is limited. Molecular markers are useful to initiate genetic study and molecular breeding for these understudied resource plants. We collected various wild collections of Peucedanum japonicum which is indigenous resource plants utilized as oriental medicine and leafy vegetables in Korea. In this study, we produced two independent whole genome sequences (WGSs) from two collections and identified large scale polymorphic simple sequence repeat (pSSR) based on our pipeline to develop SSR markers based on comparison of two WGSs. We identified a total of 452 candidate pSSR contigs. To confirm the accuracy and utility of pSSR, we designed ten SSR primer pairs and successfully applied those to seven collections of P. japonicum. The WGS and pSSR candidates identified in this study will be useful resource for genetic research and breeding purpose for the valuable resource plant, P. japonicum.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.25-45
• /
• 2002

Opening of trade relationships through an increasing number of international free trade agreements and the now defunct General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has resulted in an increase the number of the species being exchanged in the world. In the last 20 years, international environmental laws have multiplied and a number of treaties address harmful non-indigenous species (NIS) directly with specific provisions, while other treaties deal with related environmental issues and indirectly affect international regulation of NIS; however, such treaties are weak due to lack of enforceability. From the stand point of national law, many countries including the USA, Australia and New Zealand enforce national laws and regulations to protect biological resources. Typical strategies include : 1) strengthening quarantines to prevent unintentional and illegal introduction of harmful NIS, and 2) developing technologies for managing harmful NIS. However, the recent international trend for managing NIS has shifted. In 2002, the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefit Arising out of their Utilization was adopted at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity. One major issue highlighted in the document is that "there is no more free of charge to get a biological resource from other countries". The Bonn guidelines will affect international and national NIS regulatory systems because the NIS is a potentially disrupts ecosystems as well as native species. A number of impacts are expected including the revamping of national biodiversity policy regimes in many countries in the world. In particular, the ROK, which is not very biologically diverse, has to evolve national laws to protect valuable ecosystems from NIS. In the meanwhile, national rights of using beneficial indigenous and non-indigenous species as biological resources should be considered through the investigation and national registration of NIS around the world for the promotion of the biotech industry.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.35 no.7
• /
• pp.949-954
• /
• 2022

Objective: The present study is aimed at phenotypic characterization and mitochondrial d-loop analysis of indigenous "Diara" buffalo population, which are mostly confined to the villages on the South and North Gangetic marshy plains in the Bihar state of India. These buffaloes are well adapted and are best suited for ploughing and puddling the wet fields meant for paddy cultivation. Methods: Biometric data on 172 buffaloes were collected using a standard flexible tape measure. Animals are medium in size; the typical morphometric features are long head with a broad forehead and moderately long and erect ears. Genomic DNA was isolated from unrelated animals. The mtDNA d-loop 358-bp sequence data was generated and compared with 338 sequences belonging to riverine and swamp buffaloes. Results: Based on the mitochondrial d-loop analysis the Diara buffaloes were grouped along with the haplotypes reported for riverine buffalo. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of 7 mitochondrial D loop haplotypes with haplotype diversity of 0.9643. Five of the haplotypes were shared with established swamp breeds and with Buffalo population of Orissa in India. Conclusion: Morphometric analyses clearly shows distinguishing features like long and broad forehead which may be useful in identification. The germplasm of Diara buffalo is much adapted to the marshy banks of river Ganga and its tributaries. It constitutes a valuable genetic resource which needs to be conserved on priority basis.