Genetic Assessment of Holstein Cattle Using Microsatellite Markers.

The results from the analysis of 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci in Holstein cattle from a number of regions of Russia and other countries are presented. The mean number of alleles per locus was found to be 5.43 ± 0.19 with the range of 4–13 alleles and the mean number of effective alleles was 3.26 ± 0.11. A list of 29 most frequent alleles was compiled. Twenty-two private alleles were identified, and their frequencies were in the range of 0.004–0.033. It was demonstrated that the number of locally distributed alleles in Russian herds was higher than in the animals reared in other countries. The mean level of observed heterozygosity for all loci reached 0.681 ± 0.017 and varied in the range of 0.65–0.78 with the fixation index of –0.131 ± 0.005. The genetic distances between the herds reared in Russia were <0.074. The herds of cows were found to divide into two clusters. One cluster included the animals from three oblasts of Russia, along with the bulls from Germany and the Netherlands, and the other cluster included the animals from two regions that were close to the bulls from Canada, USA, and the United Kingdom. At the same time, the bulls from Denmark and Finland were found in a separate cluster. The objective of the present study was to assess the allele pool of Holstein cattle reared in Russia and determine genetic profile of the breed using STR markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]