Population structure and history of the Welsh sheep breeds determined by whole genome genotyping

Background: One of the most economically important areas within the Welsh agricultural sector is sheep farming, contributing around £230 million to the UK economy annually. Phenotypic selection over several centuries has generated a number of native sheep breeds, which are presumably adapted to the diverse and challenging landscape of Wales. Little is known about the history, genetic diversity and relationships of these breeds with other European breeds. We genotyped 353 individuals from 18 native Welsh sheep breeds using the Illumina OvineSNP50 array and characterised the genetic structure of these breeds. Our genotyping data were then combined with, and compared to, those from a set of 74 worldwide breeds, previously collected during the International Sheep Genome Consortium HapMap project. Results: Model based clustering of the Welsh and European breeds indicated shared ancestry. This finding was supported by multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), which revealed separation of the E...背景：威尔士农业中最具经济重要性的领域之一为绵羊养殖业，每年可为英国经济贡献约2.3亿英镑。历经数个世纪的表型选择，当地已培育出多个本土绵羊品种，这些品种理应适配威尔士多样且严苛的地理环境。目前学界对这些品种的演化历史、遗传多样性，以及它们与欧洲其他绵羊品种的亲缘关系仍知之甚少。本研究利用Illumina OvineSNP50基因分型芯片（Illumina OvineSNP50 array），对来自18个威尔士本土绵羊品种的353个个体进行了基因分型，并解析了这些品种的遗传结构。随后，本研究将所得基因分型数据与国际绵羊基因组联盟（International Sheep Genome Consortium）HapMap计划中收录的74个全球绵羊品种的相关数据进行整合与对比。结果：针对威尔士与欧洲绵羊品种的基于模型的聚类分析显示，二者存在共同的祖先血统。这一发现得到了多维尺度分析（multidimensional scaling analysis, MDS）的佐证，该分析揭示了E...