Genetic variability in Jalauni sheep of India inferred from microsatellite data

This paper examines the genetic variability in Jalauni - an important sheep of northwestern arid and semi arid region of India, at 25 micro satellite loci covering 19 chromosomes, in order to determine the genetic diversity available in this mutton and wool producing indigenous breed of the country. The allele diversity, gene diversity and the statistics that express polymorphism, inbreeding and genetic bottleneck within the breed were determined. A total of 148 alleles were identified with an allele diversity of 5.92. The effective allele number (3.71) was lower than the allele diversity. The mean observed heterozygosity (0.58) and gene diversity (0.68) estimates elucidated substantial genetic diversity within Jalauni breed. The used set of microsatellite loci which exhibited high genetic polymorphism (PIC=0.64) also represented a useful panel of markers for population genetic studies in Indian sheep breeds. The typical L-like distribution of the allele frequencies obtained in the Mode shift test implied that reduction in effective population size or a recent genetic bottleneck (40-80 generations) was very unlikely in this indigenous breed of sheep. The present study suggested that breeding strategies designed for conservation and improvement of Jalauni breed under field conditions must involve education of farmers for frequent exchange of breeding rams between the populations, in order to curb adverse effects of inbreeding (F_IS =0.12). Moreover, subsequent utilization of generated data for calculation of between breeds diversity would further allow selection of priority breeds at national level to maximize diversity conserved for the benefit of future human generations.