Laboratory of Diversity, Management and Conservation of Biological Systems, LR18ES06, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis 2092, Tunisia.
Department of Agronomy, Animal, Food, Natural Resources and Environment, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro Padova, Italy.
Genes (Basel). 2022 Aug 10;13(8):1421. doi: 10.3390/genes13081421.
In this study, the genetic relationship and the population structure of western Mediterranean basin native sheep breeds are investigated, analyzing Maghrebian, Central Italian, and Venetian sheep with a highly informative microsatellite markers panel. The phylogeographical analysis, between breeds' differentiation level (Wright's fixation index), gene flow, ancestral relatedness measured by molecular coancestry, genetic distances, divergence times estimates and structure analyses, were revealed based on the assessment of 975 genotyped animals. The results unveiled the past introduction and migration history of sheep in the occidental Mediterranean basin since the early Neolithic. Our findings provided a scenario of three westward sheep migration phases fitting properly to the westward Neolithic expansion argued by zooarcheological, historical and human genetic studies.
在这项研究中，通过使用高度信息丰富的微卫星标记面板，分析了马格里布、意大利中部和威尼斯的绵羊，研究了西地中海盆地本地绵羊品种的遗传关系和种群结构。基于对 975 只基因分型动物的评估，进行了系统发育分析、品种间分化水平（莱特固定指数）、基因流、分子亲缘关系测量的祖先相关性、遗传距离、分歧时间估计和结构分析。结果揭示了自新石器时代早期以来，绵羊在西地中海盆地的过去引入和迁移历史。我们的研究结果提供了一个适当的情景，即有三个向西的绵羊迁移阶段，与动物考古学、历史和人类遗传学研究提出的新石器时代向西扩张相吻合。
