Genetic characterisation of Tiruchy Black sheep of Tamil Nadu using microsatellite markers

Abstract

A total of 203 alleles were observed in the sampled population for the 25 marker loci under investigation. The number of alleles observed at each locus varied from 4 (OarHH41) to 13 (OarHH35) with a mean of 8.12±0.45 across all loci. The effective number of alleles ranged from 1.59 (OarHH41) to 7.51 (OarHH35). The mean number of effective alleles was 4.48±0.27 across all loci. The polymorphic information content values ranged from 0.7029 (OarHH41) to 0.9164 (OarHH35) with a mean of 0.8441±0.012, which showed high level of genetic variability. The x2 test revealed that among the 25 microsatellites studied only ten were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium proportions. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.2609 (OarHH41) to 0.9600 (OarCP49) with a mean of 0.6995 and the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.3734 (OarHH41) to 0.8756 (OarHH35) with a mean of 0.7575. The within population inbreeding estimates or heterozygotes deficiency within population (FIS) was observed in 13 loci and the positive FIS value ranged from 0.0796 (CSSM31) to 0.5895 (OarJMP8). Only twelve loci revealed negative FIS values (FIS