GENETIC DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS OF GOAT mtDNA HVR1

Abstract

Seventy six sequences comprising ofsamples from Nigeria, India, China, South Korea and Kenya were used in the diversity and evolutionary studies of the mtDNA HVR1 region in goats. Genetic relatedness based on neighbor joining (NJ) tree and median joining network revealed that the Kenyan native goat as an intermediate breed between Nigerian and Asian goat breeds and a complex gene flow among Nigerian goat breeds. Significant positive Taijima’s D value (2.335, p<0.05) for this tests discounted neutral hypothesis. Evolutionary analysis suggests both adaptive and purifying selection pressures that suggest a decrease in population size and or balancing selection in the mtDNA HVRI region in goats.