Genetic variability and bottleneck analysis in Raeini goat population by microsatellite markers

Assessing genetic biodiversity and population structure of minor populations through the information provided by neutral molecular markers, allows determination of their extinction risk and to design strategies for their management and conservation. Analysis of microsatellite loci is known to be highly informative in the reconstruction of the historical processes underlying the evolution and differentiation of animal populations. Iranian goat populations are recognized as an invaluable component of the world’s goat genetic resources. The aim of this work is to study the genetic status of Raeini goat population through the analysis of molecular data from 13 microsatellites markers. The mean expected heterozygosity across loci within populations ranged from 0.716 to 0.852. Genetic diversity measures revealed a good status of biodiversity in the Raeini goat population. The observed number of alleles ranged from 4 (ILSTS022) to 10 (BM121) with a total of 92 alleles and mean of 7.08 alleles across loci. The overall heterozygosity, PIC and Shannon index values were 0.808, 0.76 and 1.719 indicating high genetic diversity. Only 5 out of 13 loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The mean Fis was -0.016. Only 4 loci had positive Fis values and 9 loci had negative values. Genetic bottleneck hypotheses were also explored. Our data suggest that the Raeini goats have not experienced a genetic bottleneck in the recent past.