Genetic diversity assessment of some Iraqi Sheep breeds using micro satellite DNA markers

To assess genetic diversity among some Iraqi sheep breeds (Karadi, Jaff, and Awassi) randomly selected from three different locations of Sulaimani governorate (Jeshana, Halabjai Shahid and Kirkuk) respectively. A total of 150 blood samples were collected (50 animals per breed from both sexes) using 10 microsatellite markers, 7 were amplified and showed bands. Four primers were polymorphism and three were monomorphism. The results demonstrated that the total fragment number (TFN) for the 7 primes was 14 fragments. The overall polymorphic fragments number (PFN) was 6, the highest PFN found at locus OarJMP29 which had 3 bands, whereas the lowest PFN found at locus HUJ616, OarFCB20 and OarFCB304 which was 1 band. The overall mean percentage of polymorphic loci was 35.71 %. The OarJMP29 locus showed the highest polymorphism which was 100% and the lowest polymorphism was 0.0% for ILSTS5, MAF214, and OarJMP58 loci. In the current study mean value of number of alleles (Na) was 2 and effective number of alleles (Ne) was 1.5214. Nei’s gene diversity and Shannon index are respectively averaged of 0.3296, and 0.5063. The smallest genetic distance recorded between Jaff and Awassi which was 0.0554, while the farthest distance was observed between Karadi and Awassi 0.1168.The results of genetic identity showed that the Jaff and Awassi populations are more genetically alike (0.9461) while the Karadi and the Awassi populations were the least genetically identical (0.8898). The dendrogram tree separated the studied breeds into two clusters, the first one including Jaff and Awassi breeds, and the second cluster includes Karadi breed. Finally, moderate value for both of polymorphism and genetic diversity were observed among the studied sheep breeds, which will help in developing a suitable approach for the genetic improvement, utilization and conservation of Iraqi sheep breeds.