Polymorphism of non-coding sequences in karachai sheep

Relevance. The genetic structure of autochthonous sheep breeds is of particular interest, since it allows us to assess the ways of spreading the genetic streams of ancient sheep breeding, as well as to identify molecular genetic systems and their polymorphism associated with mechanisms of adaptation to changing environmental conditions. In order to compare the genetic structures of coarse-haired sheep breeds — Karachay, Kalmyk and Edilbaevskaya, differing in origin and breeding conditions, the features of genetic structures were evaluated by polylocus genotyping of highly polymorphic genomic elements — long terminal repeats of five retrotransposons: SIRE-1, PaswS 5, BARE-1, BERV β-3 and BERV k-1. As a result, data were obtained on the high polymorphism of genomic DNA fragments flanked by inverted repeats of the sites of these retrotransposons, and for three of them (SIRE-1, PaswS 5 and BARE-1) Kalmyk and Edilba sheep turned out to be closer to each other than to the Karachai sheep, which corresponds to the accumulated data on the uniqueness of origin and habitat conditions the Karachai breed.