Genetic characterization of Egyptian and Italian sheep breeds using mitochondrial DNA

摘要

A 721-bp fragment from 15,541 to 16,261 bp (NC_001941.1) of the mtDNA controlregion from different Egyptian and Italian sheep breeds was amplified. The PCR products werepurified and sequenced. From the amplified fragment of 721-bp, a region of 423 bp after excludinga central region rich in tandem repeats was analyzed.Within all tested breeds, the haplotype diversity and average number of pairwise differences were0.97571 and 7.01484, respectively. The genetic distances (D) and the average number of pairwisedifferences (Dxy) between breeds were estimated. The lowest distance was observed between Laticaudaand Italian Muflon followed by distance between Sarda and Italian Muflon while the highestdistance was observed between Barki and Sarda followed by distance between Barki and Laticauda.Phylogenetic analysis showed the presence of three haplogroups – HapA, HapB and HapC – inthe examined samples with the absence of other two haplogroups HapD and HapE. All Italiansamples cluster with B haplogroup and also in the Egyptian breeds the most dominant haplogroupwas B (62 out of 67 analyzed samples). In Egyptian Barki breed one individual clusters with Ahaplogroup and another individual with C haplogroup. In Ossimi breed two individuals cluster withC haplogroup and in Rahmani there is one sample belonging to A haplogroup.The matrix of pairwise differences among breeds was used to perform a Principal ComponentAnalysis (PCA). This analysis showed that the Italian breeds are clearly separated from theEgyptian breeds; moreover the Egyptian Barki breed is separated from Ossimi and Rahmani.