Genetic diversity analysis of the line-breeding Hanwoo population using 11 microsatellite markers

Abstract

The genetic diversity of three Hanwoo populations was analyzed using 11 microsatellite (MS) markers for the traceability of Hanwoo beef in this study. A total of 1,099 Hanwoo cattle from two populations (694 line-breeding and 405 general Hanwoo) at the Hanwoo Research Institute (HRI) of the National Institute of Animal Science and 1,171 Korean proven bulls (KPNs) were used for the analysis. Specific alleles of four markers (ETH10, INRA23, TGLA122, and TGLA227) were identified only in the line-breeding population, although at a low allele frequency (0.001 – 0.02). The genetic distance (Nei’s D ) between line-breeding Hanwoo and KPN was the greatest (0.064), whereas general Hanwoo and KPN were relatively close genetically (0.02); the distance between line-breeding and general Hanwoo was found to be 0.054. These results are expected because the HRI has performed closed breeding via selecting its line-breeding sires without utilizing KPN since 2009. Therefore, the line-breeding Hanwoo population of HRI show different genetic diversity from the KPN population, based on the 11 MS markers. The results of this study provide basic data for securing the genetic diversity of Hanwoo cattle and utilizing line-breeding Hanwoo cattle from the HRI.