Genetic relationships among Shin Bash , Ghezel ,Harki,Shal and Zandi sheep breeds by using mtDNA and Microsatellite markers.

In order to study of genetic structure of five Iranian sheep populations, blood samples were collected from their geographic regions. These populations included : Ghezel, Harki, Shal, Zandi and Shin bash sheep breeds. Genomic DNA was extracted by using modifyed Salting-Out method . Ten microsatellite markers and a control region(CR) of D-Loop belong to mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) were studied. Microsatellite loci were amplipheid in a multiplex PCR. Selected primers were labeled and genotyping was conducted using Genetic Analyser system. A Total of 129 alleles were identified. The mean number of alleles per locus was 12.9. The mean expected heterozygosity in all populations was 0.713 0.019 which Ghezel breed had the highest while Shal breed had the lowest. The Fis value for all populations was -0.038 that showed low inbreeding and considerable diversity in all studied population. On the base of Nei standard genetic distance, the highest and lowest genetic distance was obtained for Ghezel and Shin besh (0.052) and Harki and Zandi (0.192) respectively. The phylogenetic tree based on genetic distance matrix was reconstructed on UPGMA method, and showed two main separated groups, including: Ghezel, Shin bash and Harki together and Shal and Zandi another groups. The results of control region(CR) of mtDNA showed that nucleotide diversity was 0.015 0.0007 while Ghezel breed shows the highest (0.0179 0.0025) whereas Shin bash displays the lowest one )0.0131 0.0013(.All the 124 Iranian sheep sequences in the control region(CR) of mtDNA, 61 haplotype were recognized. The haplotyp diversity was 0.944 0.013 while Shal breed shows the highest (0.966 0.018) whereas Zandi breed displays the lowest one )0.933 0.0031(.The results showed that the Iranian sheep have all three haplogroups A, B and C with same frequency. Although haplogroup B was predominate over the others. Keywords: Iranian sheep, Genetic characterization, Microsatellite markers, mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA