Abstract
The phylogenetic relationships among 23 local sheep breeds and varieties in East Asia were determined based on allele frequency data for five informative and polymorphic blood protein and nonprotein loci (transferrin, arylesterase, hemoglobin-β, X-protein, and potassium transport) using electrophoresis and ion-densitometric techniques. Comparatively striking differences in the frequency distributions, especially of hemoglobin-β and X-protein alleles, were seen between the northern population of the Khalkhas, Bhyanglung, Baruwal, Jakar, Sakten, and five Chinese breeds and the southern population of the Bengal, Kagi, Lampuchhre, Myanmar, and Sipsu breeds. Clustering analyses using UPGMA and NJ methods and principal component analysis, using the data of all populations and loci tested, clearly demonstrated the difference. The two population groups are divided by the boundary of the Himalayas, and each diverged into three subgroups: Mongolian, Tibetan, and Himalayan groups in the north and Indian groups I, II, and III in the south. It was noted that the genetic differentiation of populations was more distinct in the northern group. These findings strongly suggest the existence of at least two large and phylogenetically different gene pools of sheep in East Asia.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Buis R. C., Tucker E. M. (1983). Relationships between rare breeds of sheep in the Netherlands as based on blood-typing. Anim. Blood Groups Biochem. Genet. 14:17
Dawson T. J., Evans J. V. (1965). Effect of hemoglobin type on the cardiorespiratory system of sheep. Am. J. Physiol. 209:593
Dorji T., Tshering G., Wangchuk T., Rege J. E. O., Hannote O. (2003). Indigenous sheep genetic resources and management in Bhutan. Animal Genet. Resour. Inform. 33:81
Epstein H. (1971). Domestic Animals of China. Africana Publishing Corp., New York
Felsenstein J. (1996). PHYLIP, version 3.5c exe. Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Fujii S. (2001). Archeology of wheat and sheep. In: Fujiki T., Kikuchi T. (eds) Archeology of the World. Douseisya, Tokyo (in Japanese)
Ghane B., Jumeja R., Grolmus J. (1977). Horizontal polyacrylamide gradient gel electrphoresis for simultaneous phenotyping of transferrin, post-transferrin, albumin and post-albumin in the blood plasma of cattle. Anim Blood Grps Biochem Genet 8:127
Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1988). Sheep and Goat Breeds in China. Shanghai Scientific and Technical Publishers, Shanghai (in Chinese)
Jia B., Chen J., Zhao R. Q., Luo Q. J., Yan G. Q., Chen J. (2003). Microsatellite analysis of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of eight sheep breeds in Xinjiang. Yi Chuan Xue Bao 30:847
Kilgour L., Dixson S. C., Tucker E. M. (1990). Two new sheep haemoglobins, one of which is replaced by haemoglobin C in anaemia. Anim. Genet. 21:115
Mason I. L. (1988). World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds. CAB International, Wallingford
Nei M. (1973). Analysis of gene diversity in subdivided population. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 70:3321
Nei M. (1978). Estimation of average heterozygosity and genetic distance from a small number of individuals. Genetics 89:583
Nei M. (1987). Molecular Evolutionary Genetics. Columbia University, New York
Nei M., Roychoudhury A. K. (1974). Genetic variation within and between the three major races of man, Caucasoids, Negroids, and Mongoloids. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 26:421
Nei M., Tajima F., Tateno Y. (1983). Accuracy of estimated phylogenetic trees from molecular data. II. Gene frequency data. J. Mol. Evol. 19:153
Ordas J. G., San Primitivo F. (1986). Genetic variations in blood proteins within and between Spanish dairy sheep breeds. Anim. Genet. 17:255
Rodero A., Garzon R., Llanes D., Zarazaga I., Vallejo M., Monje E. (1982). Genetic distances between Spanish sheep breeds. (1). Archivos de Zootecnia 31:97
Ryder M. L. (1983). Sheep and Man. Duckworth, London
Saitou N., Nei M. (1987). The neighbor-joining method: A new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol. Biol. Evol. 4:406
Singh H. P., Bhat P. N., Raina B. L., Singh R. (1979). Phylogenetic relationships between indigenous sheep breeds. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 49:910
Sokal R. R., Michner C. D. (1958). A statistical method for evaluating systematic relationships. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 28:1409
Tsunoda K., Amano T., Katsumata M., Nozawa K., Namikawa T., Tsubota Y., Hasnath M. A., Mostafa K. G., Faruque M. O. (1984). Morphological Characters and Blood Protein Polymorphisms in the Sheep of Bangladesh. Genetic Studies on Breed Differentiation of the Native Domestic Animals in Bangladesh. Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo
Tsunoda K., Sato K. (2001). Specific frequency distribution of erythrocytic X-protein alleles in indigenous sheep populations in East Asia. Biochem. Genet. 39:407
Tucker E. M., Suzuki Y., Stormont C. (1967). Three new phenotypic systems in the blood of sheep. Vox Sang 13:246
Zanotti Casati M., Gandini G. C., Leone P., Rognoni G. (1988). Genetic relationships among four sheep breeds of the Italian Alpine Ark. J. Anim. Breed Genet 105:135
Zanotti Casati M., Gandini G. C., Leone P. (1990). Genetic variation and distances of five Italian native sheep breeds. Anim. Genet. 21:87
Zhang C., Li Q., Feng Z. (1988). Studies on hemoglobin polymorphism in the Menyuan Tibetan sheep of Qinghai province. Breeding Sheep China 3:21 (in Chinese)
Acknowledgments
We thank the Japanese members of the Society for Research on Native Livestock and many persons of different East Asian countries for their kind cooperation on the surveys and blood sampling.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsunoda, K., Hong, C., Wei, S. et al. Phylogenetic Relationships among Indigenous Sheep Populations in East Asia based on Five Informative Blood Protein and Nonprotein Polymorphisms. Biochem Genet 44, 287–306 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10528-006-9026-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10528-006-9026-1