Genetic Relationship and Diversity Analysis of Indian Buffalo

¹ National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Post Box 129, Karnal 132 001, India

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rameshvijh{at}yahoo.com.

	Abstract

Buffalo is an important dairy animal of the Indian subcontinent and South East Asian countries. Buffalo diversity and differentiation among 12 populations/breeds has been studied. The data were generated and analyzed from 527 animals belonging to 10 recognized breeds and 2 additional populations of Indian buffalo using 22 microsatellite loci. The relationships among buffalo breeds and populations were estimated based on genetic distances. The Bayesian analysis grouped 12 populations into 8 distinctive clusters. Geographically close breeds clustered together, except Jaffarabadi and Murrah, which are not in geographic contiguity. The Mantel test revealed non significant correlations between genetic and geographic distances. This supports the hypothesis that buffaloes have been domesticated at different places for specific purposes. The phylogenetic relationship based on microsatellite loci supports the breed classification based on body size. The Toda breed, which is considered to be endangered, has very similar genotypes to the surrounding buffalo populations.

Key Words: Buffalo, diversity analysis, microsatellite