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Camelids are acknowledged worldwide to endure hostile conditions prevalent in the hot as well cold deserts across the globe. Adaptations to climatic extremes have been associated with mitochondrial protein variants such as ATP8 and ATP6 in different species. The camel genetic resources of India are represented by 9 breeds of dromedary camels which inhabit hot arid and semi-arid zones of the country and a small population of Bactrian camels found in the cold desert of Ladakh. In this study, within and between breed genetic diversity in Indian dromedaries and their divergence from Bactrian camels was investigated based on ATP8/6 genes. Sequence analysis of a mitochondrial DNA fragment encompassing ATP8 and ATP6 genes identified 15 haplotypes in the dromedaries of India and 3 haplotypes in Bactrian camels. The values of haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were 0.647 and 0.00187 in the former and 0.679 and 0.00098, respectively in the latter. AMOVA analysis revealed 97.81% variance between the two species. Median-Joining network delineated three distinct mitochondrial haplogroups for Camelus dromedarius, Camelus ferus and Camelus bactrianus. Clear demarcation of the old world (Dromedary and Bactrian camels) and new world camelids (Alpaca, llama, guanaco and vicugna) was evident through the phylogenetic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grey type donkeys of Braj region of Uttar Pradesh in India were genetically characterized using ten heterologous microsatellite loci. At these loci the PCR product size ranged from 75-95 bp at locus HTG6 to 251-277 bp at locus COR18. The observed number of alleles varied from 4 (HTG15) to 10 (HTG7 and AHT4) with a mean of 7.50 ± 1.96. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.46 (HTG6 and NVHEQ54) to 0.79 (COR18) with a mean of 0.66 ± 0.12. The mean genetic diversity estimate (FIS) was 0.157. When these donkeys were compared on the basis of allelic frequency data at these loci to the brown type donkeys of Ladakh, Spiti and Rayalseema regions in the union territories/states of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, they clustered independently from these three donkey populations in a dendrogram based on Goldstein's average square distances indicating their genetic distinctness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of 24 FAO recommended microsatellite markers was evaluated for parentage exclusion (PE) in three Indian pig types of Assamese, North-Indian and Ankamali. The genomic DNA from these three Indian pig types was amplified at these loci by polymerase chain reaction and resolved for alleles. The allelic frequency data was analysed to calculate the probability of paternity exclusion when one of the parents is to be excluded (PE1), when both the parents are to be excluded (PE2) and when only one parent is known and that is to be excluded (PE3) in these three Indian pig types using a set of minimum 5 loci and then increasing the number of loci in increments of 5 upto maximum of 24 loci. The cumulative PE1 values taking into consideration all the 24 loci varied from 1- 2.07x10-10 in North Indian pigs to 1-3.95x10-11 in Ankamali pigs. The cumulative PE2 values taking into consideration all the 24 loci varied from 1-4.57x10-16 in Assamese pigs to 1-3.17x10-18 in Ankamali pigs. Similarly, cumulative PE3 values for all the 24 loci varied from 0.9999968 in Assamese pigs to 0.99999955 in Ankamali pigs. The cumulative PE values obtained, even with a set of 15 loci (CGA, IGF1, S0005, S0026, S0068, S0090, S0155, S0178, S0215, S0218, S0228, S0355, SW122, SW911, SW936), were clearly more than the required value of 0.9995 in all the three breeds with the minimum value of 0.99985 for PE3 in Assamese pigs. Clearly, this set of 15 loci or the sets with 20 or 24 loci can be safely employed for parentage exclusion purposes in the Indian pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation was conducted to study the morphology, production potential and genetic architecture of Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus gallus) kept in captivity. Records of 104 birds of RJF (65 males and 39 females) were utilized in study. Males had prominent plumage pattern with neck hackles, greenish black tails, and prominent bright red single comb, while females were comparatively smaller with very small combs. RJF are seasonal breeder having small clutch and egg size. Observed and effective number of alleles across the microsatellite loci varied from 5-18 with an overall mean of 10.28 and 5.04, respectively. The average expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity were 0.492 and 0.758 respectively. Study revealed existence of population structure accompanied by higher inbreeding along with sufficient heterozygosity. The effort must be directed to introduce unrelated typical RJF in to the present population to maintain heterozygosity and ensure conservation of unique germplasm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of buffaloes of Indo-Gangetic plains of India using microsatellite markers. Authors of the study are said to have attempted to characterize the buffalo germplasm of Indo-Gangetic plains and assess population structure if it exists, noting that microsatellites have been markers of choice to determine these structures. It cites the use of POPGENE software to examine the data obtained on 11 heterologous micro-satellite loci that were selected for this study.

The article discusses the genomic sequence of TLR2 and TLR4 genes in different buffalo samples with buffalo specific single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). It states that the samples of genomic deoxyribonucleic acid was taken from 24 Indian water buffalo of various breeds. It shows that there is negligible difference in the two genes of cattle and buffalo and complete transferability of primer sequences was observed.

The article presents a study on long terminal repeat (LTR) in Bubalus bubalis genome. Using a web based algorithm, the abundance and distribution of LTRs in the buffalo genome version Bbu_2.0-alpha was examined. The study observed a total of 26,338 LTRs and found that sense strand contains more LTRs than the antisense strand. It notes that there is a total of 11 LTR regions that were found to be coding for Reverse Transcriptase (RT).

The article presents a study that sequenced the 2 genes in Bubalus bubalis. Focal to the study is the role played by toll like receptors in the innate immune recognition. The study detected single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the two genes in different buffalo breeds, prepared gene tree and compared amino acid sequences with other species for construction of phylogenetic tree.

The article presents a study which investigated cryptic genetic variability patterns in buffaloes found in Indo-Gangetic plains in India using multivariate and Bayesian analysis. The study isolated DNA from the blood samples of buffaloes and generated genotype data. It says that the five clusters formed though Geo-referenced multilocus genotypes revealed cryptic spatial patterns though were not in geographic contiguity.

The article presents an analysis of the genetic landscape and demography of buffaloes in the Indo-Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh, India. The study found the existence of isolation by distance and of five genetic structures. It reports that there has not been any colonization event nor severe reduction in the effective population size. Also found was the aggregation of alleles pointing towards absence of randomness in the geographical landscape.

The article discusses a study on the molecular genetic characteristics of Dromedarian camels and Bactrian camels in India. These two camel species were compared with the use of microsatellite markers. The study revealed that there were 26 polymorphic loci in Dromedarian and 25 in Bactrian camels. Structural analysis revealed two population structures in Dromedarian camels.

The article presents a study which generated paired end data and mate pair data from a single Murrah female with recorded pedigree and analyzed the data in relation to its related species Bos taurus. The findings indicate that the pseudomolecule buffalo assembly is more specific to buffalo than cattle. It also showed that olfactory receptor (OR) family proteins were most prevalent among those protein coding regions with the highest variation density.

The article focuses on the genetic makeup of Black Bengal and Chegu goats in India. The number of alleles in Chegu goats was 163 while Black Bengal have 188. In Black Bengal goats, the maximum expected heterozygosity was for locus ILSTS029 while the maximum observed heterozygosity was for locus OARCB34. Thirteen loci in Chegu goats out of 22 showed sub-population structure.

The article explores the genetic bottleneck in four indigenous duck populations and one commercial breed in India. The number of alleles in the sample is little than what is expected based on the hypothesis that the population is in mutation drift equilibrium. The number of loci with heterozygosity excess observed using the Infinite Allele Model (IAM) were 17 and eight in Two Phase Model (TMP). In Orissa ducks, the number of loci with heterozygosity observed in IAM were 13.60, 13.93 in TPM and 14.14 in Stepwise Mutation Model (SMM).

The article presents a study which aimed to estimate genetic distances among the indigenous duck populations and one commercial duck population in India using allele frequency and data on number of repeats of 24 microsatellite loci. The study revealed the need to consider the land and coastal area ducks as distinctive populations. The researchers concluded that the free gene flow among the coastal birds reveals homogeneity among the populations and lack of genetic structure among the ducks.

Generally natural service is preferred over Artificial Insemination (A.I.) for breeding buffaloes in India. This coupled with lack of recording for productive and reproductive traits in field conditions becomes a major handicap in implementing genetic improvement programs in buffalo. BAIF Development Research Foundation -a NGO working for improvement of rural buffalo has been implementing buffalo A.I. program over more than a decade in the state of Uttar Pradesh (which has 25% buffalo population of India). In the present study >11000 daughters of 12 sires used in AI were identified and tagged at farmers' doors. The blood samples of 9775 daughters were collected and DNA was isolated. All the 12 sires used in the buffalo improvement program and their 9775 daughters were genotyped at 10 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci distributed throughout the genome. The resultant genotype at the 10 microsatellite loci of all the sire and their daughters were compared using a small software "Confirm Paternity" developed for the purpose. If the genotype of sire and its daughters matched atleast at 8 microsatellite loci it was assumed that the daughter belonged to the recorded father. A concession of 2 mismatches were permitted due to inherent technical reasons (addition of extra a by Taq polymerase in some of the PCR products and also the sizing of the allele is never a whole number). Out of 9775 daughters of these 12 sires, only 930 failed to meet the criterion while 678 daughters belonged to one of the 12 AI sires but had wrong recording of the paternity. This revealed a correct paternity of 83% under field conditions. Based on the findings, it was concluded if carefully implemented, farmers are willing to accept and rely on A.I. for buffalo improvement and it is possible to implement buffalo field progeny testing under Indian rural field conditions for their genetic improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on a study that examined the level of genetic variation available in the red jungle fowls (RJF) kept in captivity in three different locations of Himachal Pradesh in India on the basis of 25 microsatellite markers. It investigates the morphology and the records maintained at various aviaries. It estimates the heterozygosity, gene diversity and the polymorphic information content using POPGENE software. It explores the morphological differences between RJF and domestic chicken.

The article provides information on a study that examined the genetic differentiation and structuring of Pugal and Garole sheep breed found in 2 different geographical regions, using microsatellite markers. It describes the typical feature of Pugal sheep distributed in the Bikaner and Jaisalmer districts of Rajasthan in India. The microsatellite analysis revealed 122 alleles with 45 alleles as private. The study suggests that the existence of genetic substructures in Garole sheep shall need different conservation strategies because there has been little gene flow among different islets.

Ankamali pigs, the domesticated native pigs of Kerala province of India were genetically characterized using 23 FAO recommended microsatellite markers and were compared with other native Indian pig types and Large White pigs. Twenty-six blood samples were collected from genetically unrelated animals from their breeding tract and DNA was isolated by standard procedure of phenol/chloroform. The genomic DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) at these 23 microsatellite loci, which were also used earlier to characterize Desi (North Indian) and Gahuri (North-East Indian) pigs, the other two native domesticated pig types of India. The PCR products were resolved by denaturing urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and alleles were visualized after silver nitrate staining. The data were analysed for allele size range, number of alleles, allelic frequencies, heterozygosity and polymorphism information content for each locus. The allele size range varied between 92–108 bp at locus S0026 and 280–296 bp at locus IGF-1. The total number of alleles varied between five ( S0178 and S0386) and 11 ( S0355). The mean observed and expected heterozygosities were found to be 0.74 ± 0.09 and 0.83 ± 0.03 respectively. In the neighbour-joining dendrogram based on DA genetic distances developed after 1000 bootstraps, the Ankamali pigs did not show genetic closeness either with other native Indian pig types or exotic Large White pigs with high bootstrap values indicating genetic distinctness of Ankamali pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the characterization and evaluation of Bursa breed of chicken found in Maharashtra, India. Standard methods were used to estimate the Albumen index, egg yolk index and Haughn units. Morphological study of these breed shows that frizzle character is common in these chicken. The study revealed that compared to other breeds, Bursa has lower body weight and egg weight.