Determination of declined genetic diversity of Holstein stud bulls based on microsatellite markers

Abstract

Semen importing countries are trying to select the most suitable studs according to their breeding goals, while the globally widespread use of common genetic material has been turning the loss of genetic diversity into a possible danger. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of 304 high-yielding Holstein stud bulls whose semen were produced in Turkiye, Europe and the Americas. The values of allele frequencies, expected heterozygosity (He), observed heterozygosity (Ho), Hardy-Weinberg (HW) Equilibrium, the number of alleles per locus (Na), allelic richness (Rs), polymorphic information content (PIC) and F-statistics were calculated and compared the results with similar studies. It was observed that some indicator values of the genetic diversity were decreased compared to the values of the other studies in Holstein breed. Especially the decrease in some values of SPS115 locus was statistically significant. It is thought that this could be as a result of SPS115 to be close to possible QTL regions associated with traits which indicates overall potential of selection in stud bulls. Therefore, while applying a selection program to populations, national genetic resource management strategies that maintain genetic diversity should not be forgotten besides gaining high yield.

Keywords:

• artificial insemination
• genetic diversity
• Holstein
• stud bull
• genetic polymorphisms

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to International Center for Livestock Research and Training for letting me use the official analysis results.

Ethical approval

Since the material used was the commercial semen which had been produced before and ready to use, no animal was interfered by ourselves. Therefore, it was not need the study to be approved by animal ethics committee.

Author contribution

Formal molecular analyses, bioinformatic analyses were performed by Ilke UNLUSOY and also manuscript was written by Ilke UNLUSOY.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The allele frequencies generated from the raw data is in the article. The raw data cannot be available, as it is the results of the formal control analyses.

Additional information

Funding

The author declares that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.