Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers

Sheep in Ethiopia are adapted to a wide range of environments, including extreme habitats. Elucidating their genetic diversity is critical for improving breeding strategies and mapping quantitative trait loci associated with productivity. To this end, the present study investigated the genetic diver...

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Autores principales: Edea, Zewdu, Dessie, Tadelle, Dadi, Hailu, Do Kyoung-Tag, Kim Kwan-Suk
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Frontiers Media 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126675
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author Edea, Zewdu
Dessie, Tadelle
Dadi, Hailu
Do Kyoung-Tag
Kim Kwan-Suk
author_browse Dadi, Hailu
Dessie, Tadelle
Do Kyoung-Tag
Edea, Zewdu
Kim Kwan-Suk
author_facet Edea, Zewdu
Dessie, Tadelle
Dadi, Hailu
Do Kyoung-Tag
Kim Kwan-Suk
author_sort Edea, Zewdu
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Sheep in Ethiopia are adapted to a wide range of environments, including extreme habitats. Elucidating their genetic diversity is critical for improving breeding strategies and mapping quantitative trait loci associated with productivity. To this end, the present study investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of five Ethiopian sheep populations exhibiting distinct phenotypes and sampled from distinct production environments, including arid lowlands and highlands. To investigate the genetic relationships in greater detail and infer population structure of Ethiopian sheep breeds at the continental and global levels, we analyzed genotypic data of selected sheep breeds from the Ovine SNP50K HapMap dataset. All Ethiopian sheep samples were genotyped with Ovine Infinium HD SNP BeadChip (600K). Mean genetic diversity ranged from 0.29 in Arsi-Bale to 0.32 in Menz sheep, while estimates of genetic differentiation among populations ranged from 0.02 to 0.07, indicating low to moderate differentiation. An analysis of molecular variance revealed that 94.62% and 5.38% of the genetic variation was attributable to differences within and among populations, respectively. Our population structure analysis revealed clustering of five Ethiopian sheep populations according to tail phenotype and geographic origin—i.e., short fat-tailed (very cool high-altitude), long fat-tailed (mid to high-altitude), and fat-rumped (arid low-altitude), with clear evidence of admixture between long fat-tailed populations. North African sheep breeds showed higher levels of within-breed diversity, but were less differentiated than breeds from Eastern and Southern Africa. When African breeds were grouped according to geographic origin (North, South, and East), statistically significant were detected among groups (regions). A comparison of population structure between Ethiopian and global sheep breeds showed that fat-tailed breeds from Eastern and Southern Africa clustered together, suggesting that these breeds were introduced to the African continent via the Horn and migrated further south. Our results provide a basis for investigations of genomic regions or loci involved in the adaptation of Ethiopian sheep breeds to extreme environments (heat and cold stress and disease resistance).
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spelling CGSpace1266752025-01-28T07:08:05Z Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers Edea, Zewdu Dessie, Tadelle Dadi, Hailu Do Kyoung-Tag Kim Kwan-Suk sheep Sheep in Ethiopia are adapted to a wide range of environments, including extreme habitats. Elucidating their genetic diversity is critical for improving breeding strategies and mapping quantitative trait loci associated with productivity. To this end, the present study investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of five Ethiopian sheep populations exhibiting distinct phenotypes and sampled from distinct production environments, including arid lowlands and highlands. To investigate the genetic relationships in greater detail and infer population structure of Ethiopian sheep breeds at the continental and global levels, we analyzed genotypic data of selected sheep breeds from the Ovine SNP50K HapMap dataset. All Ethiopian sheep samples were genotyped with Ovine Infinium HD SNP BeadChip (600K). Mean genetic diversity ranged from 0.29 in Arsi-Bale to 0.32 in Menz sheep, while estimates of genetic differentiation among populations ranged from 0.02 to 0.07, indicating low to moderate differentiation. An analysis of molecular variance revealed that 94.62% and 5.38% of the genetic variation was attributable to differences within and among populations, respectively. Our population structure analysis revealed clustering of five Ethiopian sheep populations according to tail phenotype and geographic origin—i.e., short fat-tailed (very cool high-altitude), long fat-tailed (mid to high-altitude), and fat-rumped (arid low-altitude), with clear evidence of admixture between long fat-tailed populations. North African sheep breeds showed higher levels of within-breed diversity, but were less differentiated than breeds from Eastern and Southern Africa. When African breeds were grouped according to geographic origin (North, South, and East), statistically significant were detected among groups (regions). A comparison of population structure between Ethiopian and global sheep breeds showed that fat-tailed breeds from Eastern and Southern Africa clustered together, suggesting that these breeds were introduced to the African continent via the Horn and migrated further south. Our results provide a basis for investigations of genomic regions or loci involved in the adaptation of Ethiopian sheep breeds to extreme environments (heat and cold stress and disease resistance). 2017-12 2023-01-07T13:21:55Z 2023-01-07T13:21:55Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126675 en Open Access Frontiers Media Edea Z, Dessie T, Dadi H, Do K-T and Kim K-S (2017) Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers. Front. Genet. 8:218
spellingShingle sheep
Edea, Zewdu
Dessie, Tadelle
Dadi, Hailu
Do Kyoung-Tag
Kim Kwan-Suk
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers
title Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers
title_full Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers
title_fullStr Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers
title_full_unstemmed Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers
title_short Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Ethiopian Sheep Populations Revealed by High-Density SNP Markers
title_sort genetic diversity and population structure of ethiopian sheep populations revealed by high density snp markers
topic sheep
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126675
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