Sheep has successfully adapted to the extreme high-altitude Himalayan region. To identify genes underlying such adaptation, we genotyped genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of four major sheep breeds living at different altitudes in Nepal and downloaded SNP array data from additional Asian and Middle East breeds. Using a di value-based genomic comparison between four high-altitud...

Research on gene regulation has been made possible with the help of RNA sequencing applications such as RNA-Seq technology for high-throughput sequencing platforms. Recent studies have explored the transcriptomes from different tissues of domestic animals using RNA-Seq technology, but little research has been done to study the transcriptomes of breeds of sheep having different adipose tissue de...

Genetic polymorphism at the β-lactoglobulin (β-LG) loci in indigenous sheep breeds (Tsigai, Racka, Pramenka) was determined. Altogether 904 sheep were genotyped for the presence of the A, B and C alleles of β-lactoglobulin by PCR-RFLP. The AB genotype was the most common and the β-lactoglobulin A was the most frequent in the Cokanski Tsigai (54%), while the B allele was the most common in the R...

This study was conducted on four sheep breeds, Karakul, Kajli, Thalli and Kachhi for their natural resistance against Haemonchus contortus. After deworming, 13 animals of each breed were ingested with doses of 5000 L3 of Haemonchus contortus and then evaluation of each was made on the basis of fecal egg count (FEC), body weight, FAMACHA score and packed cell volume (PCV) at different days of in...

The myostatin gene of seven important meat (Beltex (Australia), Beltex×Huyang (F1), Meat and Multi-Prolific Chinese Merino Fine Wool, Meat Chinese Merino Fine Wool and Dorper (South Africa)) and non-meat (Huyang and Kazak) sheep breeds was analyzed to study the genetic basis of muscular hypertrophy (double muscling) phenotype in sheep. SNPs, four in regulatory regions and several in the introns...

Tibetan sheep have lived on the Tibetan Plateau for thousands of years; however, the process and consequences of adaptation to this extreme environment have not been elucidated for important livestock such as sheep. Here, seven sheep breeds, representing both highland and lowland breeds from different areas of China, were genotyped for a genome-wide collection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms...

OBJECTIVE This study was designed to characterize the DNA polymorphisms of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene in indigenous Saudi Arabian sheep breeds exhibiting different color coats, along with individuals of the Sawaknee breed, an exotic sheep imported from Sudan. METHODS The complete coding region of MC1R gene including parts of 3' and 5' untranslated regions was amplified and sequen...

In Italy, the crisis of the wool industry triggered the necessity to reconvert the two traditional Merino-derived breeds, Gentile di Puglia and Sopravissana, to meat production, by creating the Merinizzata Italiana. The aim of the present study was to assess the genetic diversity of these three Italian Merino-derived (IMd) breeds by examining the molecular information encoded in the maternally-...

Tsigai and Improved Valachian are the most spread sheep breeds in Slovakia. Both are multi-purpose breeds (Krupová et al., 2009), well adapted to local climate and environment. Tsigai is one of the oldest native breeds in areas from 500 to 800 m above sea level, mostly in the semi-extensive production system (Krupová et al., 2009), while improved Valachian is mostly kept in mountains and foothi...

BACKGROUND Breeds with small population size are in danger of an increased inbreeding rate and loss of genetic diversity, which puts them at risk for extinction. In Sweden there are a number of local breeds, native breeds which have adapted to specific areas in Sweden, for which efforts are being made to keep them pure and healthy over time. One example of such a breed is the Swedish Gute sheep...