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ARS Home » Plains Area » Miles City, Montana » Livestock and Range Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #222292
Title: Genetic relationships among breeds of beef cattle

Author
item HUANG, Y - NORTH CAROLINA STATE U
item CASSADY, J - NORTH CAROLINA STATE U
item Alexander, Leeson
item Macneil, Michael

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2008
Publication Date: 3/15/2008
Citation: Huang, Y., Cassady, J.P., Alexander, L.J., Macneil, M.D. 2008. Genetic relationships among breeds of beef cattle. Meeting Abstract American Society of Animal Science Midwest Section, Des Moines, Iowa March 17-19, 2008, #40.

Interpretive Summary: Conservation of genetic diversity and anticipation of the amount of heterosis to be captured in crossbreeding impinge on ensuring food security and production efficiency, respectively. Genetic distances can be used to prioritize populations for genetic conservation and possibly to anticipate the relative amount of heterosis captured in crossing them. Here, we present genetic distances between 16 U.S. populations that were historically imported from the British Isles or western Europe. On average, 11% of total genetic variation was between breeds. Clusters of relatively similar breeds were Angus, Red Angus, and Shorthorn “Scottish A”; Highland and Hereford as “Scottish B”; Salers, Charolais, Limousin as “French”; Texas Longhorn, Pineywoods, Florida Cracker, Criollo as “Spanish”; and Braunvieh, Brown Swiss, Tarentaise, Simmental as “Alpine”. Relatively greater priority should be given to conservation of breeds in different clusters vis a vis breeds in the same cluster. Further, producers might expect greater heterosis when using breeds from different clusters in an organized crossbreeding system.

Technical Abstract: The objective was to estimate genetic distance among 16 populations of beef cattle from within the U.S. Thirty-three microsatellite markers representing 26 autosomes were used. MicroSatellite Analyzer 3.15 (MSA) program was used to quantify number of alleles per marker, and observed and expected heterozygosity. Differentiation of allele frequencies among populations was also quantified with MSA. CONVERT 131 was used to prepare data for submission to PHYLIP 3.67 where Nei’s unbiased genetic distance was estimated. Arlequin 2.0 was used to estimate within and among breed variation. The FST for these loci ranged from 0.05 to 0.22. On average, 11% of total genetic variation was between breeds. Unrooted neighbor-joining trees were constructed from Nei’s unbiased genetic distance. Populations were roughly placed into five groups that were consistent with documented breed history and geographical origin. Angus, Red Angus, Shorthorn were grouped as “Scottish A”; Highland and Hereford were grouped as “Scottish B”; Salers, Charolais, Limousin were grouped as “French”; Texas Longhorn, Pineywoods, Florida Cracker, Criollo were grouped as “Spanish”; Braunvieh, Brown Swiss, Tarentaise, Simmental were grouped as “Alpine”. Min and max intra-group genetic distance are 0.12 (“French” and “Spanish”) and 0.19 (“Alpine” and “Scottish A”). Angus and Red Angus diverged in the 1950s and Braunvieh and Brown Swiss diverged in the 1880s. As expected, Angus and Red Angus had the least genetic distance between them of any two populations. Surprisingly, shorter genetic distances were estimated between Braunvieh and Tarentaise (0.17), Braunvieh and Limousin (0.17), and Braunvieh and Charolais (0.15) than between Braunvieh and Brown Swiss (0.19). The greatest estimate of genetic distance was between Brown Swiss and Highland (0.44). Results may identify populations that would be expected to provide the greatest amount of hybrid-vigor when crossed, although we are unaware of experimental data with which to test this hypothesis.