Analysis of genetic diversity and distances in Asian cattle breeds using microsatellite markers

Abstract

This study defined the genetic diversity of five breeds of cattle in Asia by analyzing 6 microsatellite markers in 270 animals. Based on expected mean heterozygosity, the lowest genetic diversity was exhibited in Japanese black cattle (HE=0.5849), and the highest in Chinese yellow cattle (HE=0.8073). Average proportion of genetic variation due to interpopulation subdivision among these ve cattle breeds varied between 11.7 and 12.5%. The genetic distances were roughly divided into three groups: Japanese black cattle, Holstein, and the three remaining breeds. This clustering agrees with the origin and geographical distributions of these five cattle breeds.