Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of Colombian Creole cattle using microsatellites

To establish the diversity, structure, and phylogenetic relationships among Colombian Creole cattle, six native breeds and one introduced breed were genotyped for 20 microsatellite loci. The average number of alleles per breed ranged from 7050 (Romosinuano) to 10,100 (Casanareno), and the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.691 (San martinero) to 0.785 (Casanareno). The deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) was statistically significant (p < 0.05) in 59 out of 120 tests carried out in the six breeds for the 20 microsatellite loci analyzed. Colombian Creole bovine breeds have maintained a high level of genetic differentiation within the same populations (93%), and the rest is explained by differences between breeds (7%). The differentiation pattern and the genetic relationships between the Colombian Creole bovine breeds showed high consistency with the evolutionary history of each. Both the Bayesian grouping analysis and the neighbor-joining tree exhibited a reliable grouping pattern, which revealed two main groups: one comprised by the breeds Blanco Orejinegro, Harton del Valle, Costeno Con Cuernos, Romosinuano, and San Martinero, and the other one by the Creole breed Casanareno and Zebu. These were probably caused by different historical, reproductive, and geographic isolation precedents, as well as by different levels of inbreeding. This study will help understand the genetic characteristics of Colombian Creole cattle and will benefit future conservation programs.