Genetic Diversity Assessment of Two Goat Populations and Their Crossbred Using Microsatellite Markers

Goats play an important economic role in developing countries. Moreover, their donation in boosting economic returns in developed nations has also been steadily increasing. Mating between pure breeds of goats is a suitable breeding approach to develop crossbred characterized by heavy weights and high yield of milk, compared with the unimproved local goats. This study analyzed 36 goats from three different populations using eight microsatellite markers. The crossbreeding scheme included two pure goat breeds that are highly productive (Boer and Damascus),where mating was performed between Boer males and Damascus females to produce the crossbred population. The analysis of microsatellite markers revealed that the total allele count ranged from 71 to 82, with an average of 78.7 alleles per locus. The crossbred group showed the highest number of alleles at the SRCRSP3 locus, with 18 alleles, while the Damascus population had the lowest at the SRCRSP7 locus, with only 4 alleles. Across all goat populations studied, the number of observed alleles exceeded the expected values, suggesting the introduction of new alleles through gene flow. The difference between observed (No) and effective (Ne) allele numbers was most pronounced in the crossbred goats (2.38), attributed to the effects of crossbreeding. Furthermore, observed heterozygosity (Ho) was consistently higher than expected heterozygosity (He), pointing to an excess of heterozygotes within these populations under study. The high heterozygosity within breeds reflects the multi-allelic nature of the loci and the ability of these microsatellite loci to differentiate between goat populations. The Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) was in general high, and was 0.86, 0.81and 0.83 in Boar, Damascus, and crossbred populations, respectively. The results in general reveal the genetic power of crossing in increasing the population fitness.