Patterns of homozygosity in insular and continental goat breeds.

• Main Authors: Cardoso, Taina F, Amills, Marcel, Bertolini, Francesca, Rothschild, Max, Marras, Gabriele, Boink, Geert, Jordana, Jordi, Capote, Juan, Carolan, Sean, Hallsson, Jón H, Kantanen, Juha, Pons, Agueda, Lenstra, Johannes A, AdaptMap, Consortium
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2018
• Subjects: 590 Animals Zoology; 630 Agriculture; Iceland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.127323; https://boris.unibe.ch/127323/

BACKGROUND Genetic isolation of breeds may result in a significant loss of diversity and have consequences on health and performance. In this study, we examined the effect of geographic isolation on caprine genetic diversity patterns by genotyping 480 individuals from 25 European and African breeds with the Goat SNP50 BeadChip and comparing patterns of homozygosity of insular and nearby continental breeds. RESULTS Among the breeds analysed, number and total length of ROH varied considerably and depending on breeds, ROH could cover a substantial fraction of the genome (up to 1.6 Gb in Icelandic goats). When compared with their continental counterparts, goats from Iceland, Madagascar, La Palma and Ireland (Bilberry and Arran) displayed a significant increase in ROH coverage, ROH number and F values (P value