Abstract
The Eastern European Grey cattle are regarded as the direct descendants of the aurochs (Bos taurus primigenius). Nowadays in Romania, less than 100 Grey animals are being reared and included in the national gene reserve. We examined the genetic diversity among Romanian Grey, Brown, Spotted and Black and White cattle breeds, with a particular focus on Romanian Grey through the use of (i) 11 bovine specific microsatellite markers on 83 animals and (ii) 638 bp length of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop region sequence data from a total of 81 animals. Both microsatellite and mtDNA analysis revealed a high level of genetic variation in the studied breeds. In Romanian Grey a total of 100 alleles were found, the mean number of observed alleles per locus was 9.091; the average observed heterozygosity was 0.940; the Wright’s fixation index (FIS) was negative (-0.189) and indicates that there is no inbreeding and no selection pressure. MtDNA analysis revealed 52 haplotypes with 67 variable sites among the Romanian cattle breeds without any insertion or deletion. Haplotype diversity was 0.980 ± 0.007 and ranged from 0.883 ± 0.056 (Brown) to 0.990 ± 0.028 (Spotted and Black and White). The highest genetic variability of the mtDNA was recorded in the Grey breed, where 18 haplotypes were identified. The most frequent mtDNA D-loop region belonged to T3 haplogroup (80.247%), which was found across all studied breeds, while T2 haplotypes (16.049%) was only found in Grey, Spotted and Black and White genotypes. The T1 haplotypes (3.704%) were found in the Grey and Spotted. The current results contribute to the general knowledge on genetic diversity found in Eastern European cattle breeds and could prove a valuable tool for the conservation efforts of animal genetic resources (FAnGR).
Highlights
Cattle are an important livestock species that have played a special role in the human history and culture, and had a considerable impact on human society
The aim of the current study was to evaluate the genetic diversity among Romanian Grey, Brown, Spotted and Black and White cattle breeds with a particular focus on the endangered Romanian Grey breed, in order to provide information for future breeding programmes and conservation management strategy of the breed
A surprisingly high level of genetic diversity was found in the endangered Romanian Grey cattle population
Summary
Cattle are an important livestock species that have played a special role in the human history and culture, and had a considerable impact on human society. In the European countries a total of 464 cattle breeds are classified as either local or regional according to the list of Domestic Animal Diversity [4], their numbers should be higher since around 130 cattle breeds have disappeared or are currently under threat of extinction. This decrease in the number of cattle breeds has several reasons, such as modernization and reorientation of the agricultural production, socio-economic changes and cultural developments. Strong geographic differentiation of cattle mtDNA suggests strong founder effects during the earliest migrations of cattle, which was present only in a few individuals [10]
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