Estimation of Effective Population Size of Korean Native Black Goat Using Genomic Information

Abstract

The Korean native black goat (Capra hircus coreanae) is the only goat species to be officially registered in Korea under the Food and Agriculture Organization; however, no systematic research on their genetic diversity has been conducted. Decreased genetic diversity in Korean native black goat leads to an increase in the level of inbreeding across generations. In this study, the genetic parameters and effective population size of three strains of Korean native black goat?82 Dangjin, 87 Jangsu, and 118 Tongyeong individuals?were estimated using their genomic information. The average linkage disequilibrium (r2) between single nucleotide polymorphism markers in the genome was 0.16, 0.14, and 0.13 for the Dangjin, Jangsu, and Tongyeong strains, respectively. The largest linkage disequilibrium was observed in the 14th and 26th chromosomes (r2 = 0.18) of Dangjin individuals. Furthermore, an increase in physical distance between markers decreased the linkage disequilibrium. The effective population size of the three Korean native black goat strains showed a decreasing trend proportional to the decrease in generation. The effective population size was 47, 59 and 56 individuals for the Dangjin, Jangsu and Tongyeong strains, respectively, 13 generations ago. These values could be due to the high level of inbreeding for generating populations to preserve the Korean native black goat genetic resource. ? 2021 Friends Science Publishers