Genetic diversity among Romanian cattle breeds with a special focus on the Romanian Grey Steppe Breed

The genetic diversity found in domestic breeds allows farmers to develop new characteristics in response to changes in the environment, the appearance of diseases, or of modifications in market conditions. Indigenous breeds often possess gene combinations and special adaptations (such as disease resistance, adaptation to harsh conditions or poor-quality feeds) not found in other breeds. Five Romanian cattle breeds (Romanian Spotted, Romanian Black Spotted, Romanian Brown, Montbeliarde and Romanian Grey Steppe) were investigated in order to characterize their genetic structure and to study their phylogenetic origin. Romanian Grey Steppe is an indigenous cattle breed, part of the Grey Steppe/Podolian group originating in the steppe of Ukraine. The observed heterozygosity per breed ranged from 0.580 (Montbeliarde) to 0.690 (Romanian Brown) and the expected heterozygosity from 0.711 (Romanian Spotted) to 0.778 (Romanian Black Spotted). Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was tested for all breed-combinations and the exact P-value over all loci and breeds was not significant. Only 7% of the total genetic variability could be attributed to differences among breeds (FST=0.07, p<0.01). The Romanian Grey Steppe was clearly segregated from the other breeds in the NJ tree.