Genetic diversity of Hariana and Hissar cattle from Pakistan using microsatellite analysis

Genetic diversity of Hariana and Hissar cattle breeds of Pakistan was investigated by using 30 bovine microsatellites markers proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Society for Animal Genetics. The study was aimed at assessing the current genetic variability to understand whether the two cattle breeds are genetically different. Out of 30 loci, 27 microsatellites loci amplified well and exhibited polymorphisms. Polymorphic information content (PIC) value was 0.749 in Hariana and 0.719 in Hissar. A total of 128 alleles were detected across the 27 loci with an average of 4.59 and 4.37 alleles per locus in Hariana and Hissar breeds, respectively. The observed number of alleles (Na) ranged from 2 (CSRM60) to 7 alleles (BM1818; ETH10) in Hissar cattle, and 3 (INRA032; MM12) to 6 (BM1818; ETH10; INRA023; SPS115) in Hariana cattle. The effective number of alleles (Ne) were in the range of 1.905 (HELD to 3.774 (TGLA126) in Hariana and 1.513 (ETH225) to 5.708 (BM1818) in Hissar cattle. The estimated mean observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) were 0.51 and 0.67 in Hariana vs. 0.47 and 0.63 in Hissar cattle, respectively. Heterozygote deficiency analysis revealed that both the populations exhibited significant deviations from Hardy Weinberg (HW) equilibrium (P less than 0.05) at some of the loci. There was a significant deficit of heterozygotes (Fis) in both the breeds, ranging from 25.2% in Hariana to 25.9% in Hissar. The average Fis values for most of the loci in both breeds were significantly different (P less than 0.05) from zero. These results reveal that although Hariana and Hissar breeds shared the common breeding tract, they are genetically different enough as separate breeds.