Abstract
BackgroundThe origin of native and locally developed Russian cattle breeds is linked to the historical, social, cultural, and climatic features of the diverse geographical regions of Russia. In the present study, we investigated the population structure of nine Russian cattle breeds and their relations to the cattle breeds from around the world to elucidate their origin. Genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Bestuzhev (n = 26), Russian Black-and-White (n = 21), Kalmyk (n = 14), Kholmogor (n = 25), Kostromsky (n = 20), Red Gorbatov (n = 23), Suksun (n = 20), Yakut (n = 25), and Yaroslavl cattle breeds (n = 21) was done using the Bovine SNP50 BeadChip. SNP profiles from an additional 70 breeds were included in the analysis as references.ResultsThe observed heterozygosity levels were quite similar in eight of the nine studied breeds (HO = 0.337–0.363) except for Yakut (Ho = 0.279). The inbreeding coefficients FIS ranged from -0.028 for Kalmyk to 0.036 for Russian Black-and-White and were comparable to those of the European breeds. The nine studied Russian breeds exhibited taurine ancestry along the C1 axis of the multidimensional scaling (MDS)-plot, but Yakut was clearly separated from the European taurine breeds on the C2 axis. Neighbor-Net and admixture analyses, discriminated three groups among the studied Russian breeds. Yakut and Kalmyk were assigned to a separate group because of their Turano-Mongolian origin. Russian Black-and-White, Kostromsky and Suksun showed transboundary European ancestry, which originated from the Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Danish Red breeds, respectively. The lowest level of introgression of transboundary breeds was recorded for the Kholmogor, Yaroslavl, Red Gorbatov and Bestuzhev breeds, which can be considered as an authentic genetic resource.ConclusionsWhole-genome SNP analysis revealed that Russian native and locally developed breeds have conserved authentic genetic patterns in spite of the considerable influence of Eurasian taurine cattle. In this paper, we provide fundamental genomic information that will contribute to the development of more accurate breed conservation programs and genetic improvement strategies.
Highlights
The origin of native and locally developed Russian cattle breeds is linked to the historical, social, cultural, and climatic features of the diverse geographical regions of Russia
Large-scale breeding of cattle in Russia began in the 1920–1940s, when the first herd books were published and the first breeds were officially recognized, including Russian Black-and-White, Yaroslavl (1925), and Kholmogor, which originated from the Northern Great Russian land cattle; the Red Gorbatov, Bestuzhev, and Suksun breeds of red cattle; Yakut, which was native to Siberia; Kalmyk, which was bred by the nomadic people of the southern steppe of Russia; and the Kostromsky breed of brown cattle
To elucidate the origin of the Russian cattle population, we investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of nine Russian cattle breeds, including eight breeds from the European part of Russia and one breed native to Siberia (Yakut), and their relationship with the cattle breeds from around the world at the whole-genome level using a set of 35,874 polymorphic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Bovine SNP50 K BeadChip (Illumina, Inc., San-Diego, USA)
Summary
The origin of native and locally developed Russian cattle breeds is linked to the historical, social, cultural, and climatic features of the diverse geographical regions of Russia. Large-scale breeding of cattle in Russia began in the 1920–1940s, when the first herd books were published and the first breeds were officially recognized, including Russian Black-and-White (in 1925), Yaroslavl (1925), and Kholmogor (in 1927), which originated from the Northern Great Russian land cattle; the Red Gorbatov (in 1926), Bestuzhev (in 1928), and Suksun (in 1943) breeds of red cattle; Yakut (in 1929), which was native to Siberia; Kalmyk (in 1934), which was bred by the nomadic people of the southern steppe of Russia; and the Kostromsky breed of brown cattle (in 1943) (for a short description of breeds [see Additional file 1: Table S1]). While some authors claim a composite origin of most of the Russian cattle breeds [5, 6], others insist on only minor contributions from the foreign breeds in the development of the Russian cattle population [7, 8]
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