Genetic variation of Nigerian cattle inferred from maternal and paternal genetic markers

David H Mauki; Adeniyi C Adeola; Said I Ng'ang'a; Abdulfatai Tijjani; Ibikunle Mark Akanbi; Oscar J Sanke; Abdussamad M Abdussamad; Sunday C Olaogun; Jebi Ibrahim; Philip M Dawuda; Godwin F Mangbon; Paul S Gwakisa; Ting-Ting Yin; Min-Sheng Peng; Ya-Ping Zhang

doi:10.7717/peerj.10607

Genetic variation of Nigerian cattle inferred from maternal and paternal genetic markers

PeerJ. 2021 Mar 5:9:e10607. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10607. eCollection 2021.

Authors

David H Mauki^#^{1

2

3}, Adeniyi C Adeola^#^{1

2}, Said I Ng'ang'a^{1

2

3}, Abdulfatai Tijjani⁴, Ibikunle Mark Akanbi⁵, Oscar J Sanke⁶, Abdussamad M Abdussamad⁷, Sunday C Olaogun⁸, Jebi Ibrahim⁹, Philip M Dawuda¹⁰, Godwin F Mangbon¹¹, Paul S Gwakisa¹², Ting-Ting Yin¹, Min-Sheng Peng^{1

2

3}, Ya-Ping Zhang^{1

2

3

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
² Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sino-Africa Joint Research Center, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
³ University of Academy of Sciences, Kunming College of Life Science, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
⁴ School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁵ Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Secretariat, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria.
⁶ Taraba State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Jalingo, Taraba, Nigeria.
⁷ Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano, Kano, Nigeria.
⁸ Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria.
⁹ College of veterinary medicine, department of theriogenology, University of agriculture, Makurdi, Makurdi, Benue, Nigeria.
¹⁰ Department of Veterinary Surgery and Theriogenology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agriculture Makurdi, Makurdi, Benue, Nigeria.
¹¹ Division of Veterinary Office, Serti, Taraba, Nigeria.
¹² Department of Microbiology, Parasitology and Biotechnology/ Genome Science Center, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.
¹³ State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resource in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
¹⁴ Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The African cattle provide unique genetic resources shaped up by both diverse tropical environmental conditions and human activities, the assessment of their genetic diversity will shade light on the mechanism of their remarkable adaptive capacities. We therefore analyzed the genetic diversity of cattle samples from Nigeria using both maternal and paternal DNA markers. Nigerian cattle can be assigned to 80 haplotypes based on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences and haplotype diversity was 0.985 + 0.005. The network showed two major matrilineal clustering: the dominant cluster constituting the Nigerian cattle together with other African cattle while the other clustered Eurasian cattle. Paternal analysis indicates only zebu haplogroup in Nigerian cattle with high genetic diversity 1.000 ± 0.016 compared to other cattle. There was no signal of maternal genetic structure in Nigerian cattle population, which may suggest an extensive genetic intermixing within the country. The absence of Bos indicus maternal signal in Nigerian cattle is attributable to vulnerability bottleneck of mtDNA lineages and concordance with the view of male zebu genetic introgression in African cattle. Our study shades light on the current genetic diversity in Nigerian cattle and population history in West Africa.

Keywords: Genetic diversity; Nigerian cattle; West Africa; Y-chromosome; mtDNA.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Sino-Africa Joint Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SAJC201611) and the Animal Branch of the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Chinese Academy of Sciences (the Large Research Infrastructure Funding). The Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative provided support to Adeniyi Charles Adeola (2018FYB0003). David Heriel Mauki and Said Ismael Ng’ang’a received support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences-The World Academy of Sciences (CAS-TWAS) President’s Fellowship Program for Doctoral students. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.