Tracing the historical genetic components in turano-mongolian cattle breeds based on the microsatellite analysis of modern and museum samples.

In their centuries-long history, the nomads of the south of Russia developed the local cattle breeds, which are well adapted to the harsh steppe conditions. In 20th century, the population size of such cattle breeds was dramatically decreased. At the same time, intensive cross breeding with high-producing transboundary breeds had been practiced on the small remaining part of population. The aim of our study was to trace the historical genetic components in modern populations of local cattle breeds of the turanomongolian origin. The historical specimens of Kalmyk (n = 10), Kyrgyz (n = 11) and Kazakh (n = 3) cattle dated by the first quarter of the 20th century were derived from the craniological collection of the E.F. Liskun Museum for Animal Husbandry and subjected to the study. The modern representatives of Kalmyk (n = 28), Kyrgyz (n = 20), Kazakh White-headed (n = 30), Hereford (n = 26), and Mongolian (n = 41) cattle were used for comparison. All works with historical samples were performed in dedicated facility of the L.K. Ernst research Center for Animal Husbandry. The samples were genotyped for 11 microsatellite loci (BM1818, BM2113, BM1824, ETH10, ETH225, INRA023, SPS115, TGLA53, TGLA122, TGLA126, and TGLA227). For historical samples, the PCR reactions were carried out in five replicates to determine the consensus genotypes. In total, 132 alleles were identified, including 97 alleles in historical samples and 124 alleles in modern samples. The values of unbiased expected heterozygosity were 0.767-0.776 and 0.653-0.778 for the historical and modern samples, respectively. The STRUCTURE clustering showed the visible differences in genetic structure between the historical and modern populations of Kalmyk, Kyrgyz and Kazakh cattle breeds; however, the historical genetic components were still maintained in modern representatives of all of studied breeds. The research results will be useful for the sustainable breeding and conservation of valuable local genetic resources. The study was funded by the RSF No. 19-76-20012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]