Genetic Variation among Different Ecotypes of the Iranian Sanjabi Sheep

In order to investigate genetic variation of 3 ecotypes of Saniabi sheep (Zardi, Kajal, Kolul), an experiment was planned, using 10 microsatellite markers (INRA023, SPS113, HSC, D5S2, McM527, MAF65, INRA005, INRA063, oarFCB304 and oarFCB11). Genomic DNA was extracted from 150 blood samples, using modified Salting out method. All loci were amplified by PCR except INRA023. Loci in all of the ecotypes were highly polymorphic. Significant departures from HWE were detected for all loci in all population, except for oarFCB11 in Kolul ecotype (p<0.05). INRA063 was the most polymorphic marker according to its effective number of alleles (equal to 6.58 in Zardi), expected heterozygosity (equal to 0.86 in Zardi), Shannon information index (equal to 2.01 in Zardi) and Polymorphism information content (equal to 0.83 in Zardi). However, MAF65 showed the lowest effective number of alleles (equal to 2.91 in Kajal), expected heterozygosity (equal to 0.66 in Kajal), Shannon information index (equal to 1.18 in Kajal) and Polymorphism information content (equal to 0.59 in Kajal). According to the observations, the Zardi ecotype was more polymorphic and showed highest genetic variation than the others as well as Kolul was lowest. The phylogenetic clusters presented that Zardi and Kolul ecotypes have minimum Genetic Distance to each other. Results showed that, high level of genetic diversity was observed in all ecotypes of Sanjabi breed and this breed was not at risk for conservation concept.