Microsatellate Analysis Of Genetic Diversity And Wool Traits In Superfine Merino Sheep

In this study, the genetic diversity of 232 samples in six paternal families of half-sibs of superfine merino sheep were studied, by using fifteen microsatellite markers mapped to sheep chromosome 1 and chromosome 3. Allele frequencies(p), mean heterozygosity(H)polymorphisms information content(PIC), and average effective number of alleles(N)were calculated. And various phenoltype including wool fibre diameter(WFD), fibre diameter dispersion(FD-D), wool fibre absolute strength(WAS), wool fibre relative strength(WRS), wool strength disperse(WSD ), wool natural length(WNL), wool extend length(WEL ) and fibre waviness(FW) were measured in the flock.The results showed that 8 of 15 microsatellites loci were remarkable polymorphic, the others were not polymorphic. Among the polymorphic microsatellite markers, polymorphisms information content of Maf64 loci is the highest(PIC=0.8399), and polymorphisms information content of BL-4 loci is the lowest(PIC=0.4201). In this population, the average PIC is 0.64, H is 0.67, N is 3.7. By analysis, genetic heterozygosity of superfine merino sheep is much high,which showed that genetic background is complex,genetic polymorphism is plentiful in the population. And those 8 polymorphic microsatellite markers can also be applied in further analyzing other characteristics of wool in superfine merino sheep.Analysis of the wool traits shows : the normal distribution of wool phenotype values were natural,and were representatives features in the entire group. And the analysis results showed that there were significantly positive correlation between WFD and WAS(P<0.01),significantly negative correlation between WFD and WRS(P<0.01),significantly positive correlation between FD-D and WAS(P<0.01),WAS and WRS(P<0.01),positive correlation between FW and WNL(P<0.05).Correlation analysis of Microsatellite loci with wool phenotype showed: there were great correlation between microsatellite BL-4 and WEL,microsatellite KRT2-13 and WEL(P<0.01), microsatellite Oarcp43 and WSD(P<0.01),microsatellite Bms1248 and WFD(P<0.01) , the correlation between microsatellite Fcb5 and FW was significant(P<0.05) , microsatellite OarDB6 and WAS was significant(P<0.05).