Journal of Animal Breeding and Genomics (J Anim Breed Genom)
Indexed in KCI
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED
pISSN 1226-5543
eISSN 2586-4297
Review

The genetic diversity of Japanese Wagyu using molecular markers

Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

Correspondence to Hideyuki MANNEN, E-mail: mannen@kobe-u.ac.jp

Volume 1, Number 1, Pages 17-22, September 2017.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genomics 2017, 1(1), 17-22. https://doi.org/10.12972/jabng.20170002
Received on 3 July, 2017, Revised on 20 August, 2017, Accepted on 25 August, 2017, Published on September 30, 2017.
Copyright © 2017 Korean Society of Animal Breeding and Genetics.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0).

ABSTRACT

We have investigated the genetic diversity and structure using several DNA markers, such as mtDNA, Sry gene in Y chromosome and autosomal SNPs for Japanese Wagyu and native cattle in the North Eastern Asia. Most of Japanese cattle mtDNA belonged to Bos taurus mtDNA haplogroups T1, T2, T3 and T4. All Japanese populations included Asian unique mtDNA haplogroup T4 with high frequencies (0.43 – 0.81). The predominant T4 haplogroup may be a result of founder effect when ancestral cattle were introduced to Japan Islands at the immigration. We found that Mongolian cattle have Bos indicus mtDNA with the genetic frequency of 0.20, but no Bos indicus Y chromosome. No Bos indicus mtDNA in both Japanese and Korean samples suggested that the introgression may be a secondary phenomenon, with the earlier cattle in the region being purely Bos taurus. We analyzed 117 SNPs to assess the genetic diversity, structure and relationships of 16 Eurasian cattle populations. The results could suffi ciently explain the genetic construction of Asian cattle populations. These results reflected to the geographical and historical background in each population. The genetic information would contribute to understanding origin of North Asian native cattle, in addition to the origin of Japanese Wagyu cattle.

KEYWORDS

Genetic diversity, mtDNA, molecular markers, origin, Wagyu

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