Molecular and Cytogenetic Evaluation of Four Indian Breeds of Sheep

Abstract

Kumar, P., Kumar, K.G., Bhattacharya, T.K., Bhushan, B., Sharma, A. and Ahlawat, S.P.S. 2009. Molecular and cytogenetic evaluation of four Indian breeds of sheep. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 36: 261–266.

This study was conducted to evaluate four breeds of Indian sheep namely Marwari, Mandya, Madras Red and Muzaffarnagari at cytogenetic and molecular genetic levels. The Karyotype revealed 54 numbers of chromosomes in both the sexes. The NORs were found on the telomeric ends of chromosomal pairs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. C-bands were found on all the autosomes while sex chromosomes were C-band negative. The G-bands were found on all metaphase chromosomes. The RAPD experiments produced 6 to 15 fingerprints with size ranging from 0.3 to 1.9 kb. The intrabreed homogeneity estimated in terms of band sharing frequency (BSF) was highest (0.95) in Marwari breed, whereas, lowest magnitude (0.90) was observed in Muzaffarnagari breed. The genetic distance based on MAPD was highest (9.5) between Marwari and Muzaffarnagari, whereas, the lowest magnitude (4.9) was found between Mandya and Muzaffarnagari breeds. It may be concluded that all four breeds of sheep studied have similarity in chromosomal configuration based on C, G and NOR banding patterns. The results will help in characterization and ultimately conservation of these sheep breeds.

Keywords:

• Chromosome
• Banding
• Evaluation
• RAPD
• RFLP
• Sheep