Genetic Structure of West African Dwarf Goats in South East Nigeria Using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat Markers (ISSR)

Abstract

In this study, the genetic structure of 50 goats of West African Dwarf (WAD) origin was evaluated. Five (5) inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used. The markers include – ISSR HB- 8, ISSR HB-10, ISSR HB-13, ISSR UBC-816 and ISSR UBC- 826. The ISSR markers were found to be polymorphic, informative and revealing. DNA was extracted from whole blood using CTAB extraction method according to manufacturers’ protocol. The samples were randomly collected from markets, farms and households. A total of eleven (11) samples were collected in Imo State, twelve (12) in Anambra State, ten (10) in Abia State, seven (7) in Ebonyi State and ten (10) in Enugu State. . A dendrogram of the 50 WAD goat UPGMA procedure clustered the goats into ten major groups. The edge length sum of 7.167 was detected; the dissimilarity maximum value was 1, while that of the minimum was 4.7619 x 10^–2 at 95% percentile. The principal component analysis of the fifty WAD goat resulted in five clusters while the dimensional scatter plot of the principal component analysis showed that there were no distinct clusters for each state. The genetic variability within the limits of observed small genetic distance in WAD goat could be harnessed considering the colour variates for genetic characterization purpose. The ISSR marker could be included in the formulation of effective conservation strategies and identification of the quantitative trait loci for marker-assisted selection in goat genetic improvement.