Gudra Dita, Valdovska Anda, Kairisa Daina, Galina Daiga, Jonkus Daina, Ustinova Maija, Viksne Kristine, Kalnina Ineta, Fridmanis Davids
Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Riga, LV, 1067, Latvia.
Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Jelgava, LV, 3001, Latvia.
Heliyon. 2024 May 16;10(10):e31455. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31455. eCollection 2024 May 30.
The Latvian Darkheaded is the only locally developed sheep breed. The breed was formed at the beginning of the 20th century by crossing local coarse-wooled sheep with the British Shropshire and Oxfordshire breeds. The breed was later improved by adding Ile-de-France, Texel, German blackheads, and Finnsheep to achieve higher prolificacy and better meat quality. Previous studies have reported the Latvian Darkheaded sheep to be closely related to Estonian and Lithuanian Blackface breeds, according to microsatellite data. To expand our knowledge of the genetic resources of the Latvian Darkheaded breed, we conducted a whole-genome resequencing analysis on 40 native sheep. The investigation showed that local sheep harbor genetic diversity levels similar to those observed among other improved breeds of European origin, including Charollais and Suffolk. Genome-wide nucleotide diversity (π) in Latvian Darkheaded sheep was 3.91 × 10, whereas the average observed heterozygosity among the 40 animals was 0.267 and 0.438 within the subsample of unrelated individuals. The has rapidly decreased to 200 ten generations ago with a recent drop to 73 four generations ago. However, inbreeding levels based on runs of homozygosity were, on average, low, with F ranging between 0.016 and 0.059. The analysis of the genomic composition of the breed confirmed shared ancestry with sheep of British origin, reflecting the history of the breed. Nevertheless, Latvian Darkheaded sheep were genetically separable. The contemporary Latvian Darkheaded sheep population is genetically diverse with a low inbreeding rate. However, further development of breed management programs is necessary to prevent an increase in inbreeding, loss of genetic diversity, and depletion of breed-specific genetic resources, ensuring the preservation of the native Latvian Darkheaded sheep.
拉脱维亚黑头羊是唯一在当地培育出的绵羊品种。该品种于20世纪初通过将当地粗毛羊与英国什罗普郡和牛津郡品种杂交而成。后来,通过加入法兰西岛羊、特克塞尔羊、德国黑头羊和芬兰羊进行改良,以实现更高的繁殖力和更好的肉质。根据微卫星数据,先前的研究报告称拉脱维亚黑头羊与爱沙尼亚和立陶宛黑脸品种密切相关。为了扩大我们对拉脱维亚黑头羊品种遗传资源的了解,我们对40只本地绵羊进行了全基因组重测序分析。调查表明,本地绵羊的遗传多样性水平与其他欧洲起源的改良品种(包括夏洛莱羊和萨福克羊)中观察到的相似。拉脱维亚黑头羊的全基因组核苷酸多样性(π)为3.91×10,而在40只动物中观察到的平均杂合度在无关个体的子样本中为0.267,在整个样本中为0.438。该品种数量在十代前迅速减少到200只,最近四代前降至73只。然而,基于纯合子片段的近亲繁殖水平平均较低,F值在0.016至0.059之间。对该品种基因组组成的分析证实了其与英国起源绵羊的共同祖先关系,反映了该品种的历史。尽管如此,拉脱维亚黑头羊在基因上是可区分的。当代拉脱维亚黑头羊种群在基因上具有多样性,近亲繁殖率较低。然而,有必要进一步制定品种管理计划,以防止近亲繁殖增加、遗传多样性丧失和品种特异性遗传资源枯竭,确保保护拉脱维亚本土黑头羊。