Genetic structure and diversity of Santa Inês sheep flocks in Central-Northern Brazil

The objective of this study was to assess the genetic structure and diversity of six Santa In & ecirc;s sheep flocks from the Central-Northern Brazil. A panel of 20 highly polymorphic and informative microsatellite loci was selected and amplified. The following parameters were obtained: overall mean of number of alleles = 15.4; expected heterozygosity (He) = 0.89; polymorphism information content (PIC) = 0.88; discriminatory capacity = 0.95; combined probability of identity = 1.50 x 10-34; and probability of exclusion = 1.00. The flocks with the lowest and the highest degrees of genetic variability were Farm 6 (He = 0.70, PIC = 0.653, and allelic richness [Ar] = 3.76) and Farm 1 (He = 0.89, PIC = 0.882, and Ar = 4.39), respectively. Indications of genetic bottleneck were observed in all flocks, as well as moderate genetic differentiation, with FST = 0.053, RST = 0.096, and Dest = 0.169. The migration rate in all flocks was high, with a trend towards Farm 1. This finding was not in agreement with the substructure found with the Bayesian admixture analysis and corroborated the array obtained with the principal component analysis and the clustering analysis. The results revealed moderate structuring and high genetic diversity in the flocks. However, management strategies should be reviewed, as evidence of bottleneck and genetic erosion was observed.