Phenotypic and genetic characterization of Sangamneri goat breed

Abstract

The Sangamneri goat (Accession number: INDIA_Goat_0011_ Sangamneri _06018) is a dual-purpose breed existing in the villages of Nasik, Ahmednagar and Pune districts of Maharashtra. The animals are small- to medium-sized. The coat colour is complete white but admixtures of black and brown are also available. The average measurements for height at wither, body length, chest girth, paunch girth, face length, horn length, ear length, tail length (cm) and b. wt (kg) are as 55.16±1.02, 50.79±0.79, 55.26±0.78, 57.21±1.00, 13.74±0.27, 3.47±0.21, 14.63±0.52, 11.53±0.36, 14.47±0.13 in 3 months; 60.31±1.06, 57.63±1.13, 60.89±1.10, 66.94±0.27, 14.68±0.41, 5.00±0.42, 14.84±0.32, 14.15±0.82, 20.26±0.82 in 6 months; and 71.11±0.38, 71.00±0.38, 74.65±0.43, 78.85±0.46, 17.16±0.09, 14.45±0.10, 17.66±0.08, 15.76±0.08, 34.21±0.22 in adult animals of the age more than 15 months. Animals are kept on stall feeding. A battery of 25 selected micro-satellite markers was used to study the genetic variability in Sangamneri breed. The number of alleles observed varied from 3 (ILSTS 022) to 21 (OarFCB304) with an overall mean of 9.0. Most of the studied loci showed the polymorphic information content value greater than 0.5 except ILST008, OarJMP29, ILSTS005 and ILSTS029 locus. The PIC values varied from 0.271 (OarJMP29) to 0.878 (ILSTS 082) across loci with an average value of 0.711. The average expected gene diversity within the population ranged from 0.2769 (OarJMP 29) to 0.8880 (ILSTS 082) with an overall mean of 0.6970±0.033, whereas observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.0435 (ETH 225) to 0.8571 (ILSTS 002) with an average of 0.5399±0.0549. Sixteen out of total 25 studied loci showed significant heterozygote deficiency (positive Fis value). The significant positive values of the Fis ranged from 0.118 (OarFCB304) to 1.0 (ETH225) with an over all mean of 0.245. The genetic analysis based on the selected micro-satellites clearly pinpointed the need for suitable genetic management so as to retain the founder alleles to the extent possible in the population.