Characteristic of allele pool of local cattle breeds of Russia based on microsatellite markers
Local cattle breeds are source of valuable genes and an important part of cultural heritage of the breeding regions, it is therefore important to take measures that promote a sustainable management of these genetic resources. In this regard, aim of our work is characterization of the present allele pool, an assessment of level of genetic diversity and a study of genetic relationships of populations of nine native and locally developed Russian cattle breeds (n = 835), including Bestuzhev (BEST), Kalmyk (KALM), Kostromsky (KOST), Red Gorbatov (RGBT), Suksun (SUKS), Kholmogor (HOLM), Yaroslavl (YARS), Yakut (YAKT) and Tagil (TAGL). Polymorphism of 10 microsatellite loci was studied on genetic analyzer ABI3130xl. Effective number of alleles varied from 2.78 in YAKT to 4.56 alleles in TAGL, while number of informative alleles ranged from 3.50 in YAKT to 5.30 alleles in KALM. In 8 of 9 breeds level of observed heterozygosity exceeded 0.66. Pairwise F<sub>st </sub>values showed an insignificant (from 0.023 to 0.045) or moderate (from 0.050 to 0.106) genetic differentiation between local cattle breeds. YAKT was the most separated (D<sub>N</sub> from 0.315 to 0.518, F<sub>st </sub>from 0.70 to 0.106). The pairs RGBT and SUKS (F<sub>st</sub> = 0.026), KALM and BEST (F<sub>st</sub> = 0.023), as well as TAGL and BEST (F<sub>st</sub> = 0.022) occupied the neighboring positions on the PCoA plot. The AMOVA showed that 89% of the genetic variability was due to variability within the groups, while 11% of variability was intergroup differences. Thus, our research represents the most complete information on the state of the allele pool, genetic diversity and differentiation of nine local Russian cattle breeds.