History and genetic diversity of African sheep: Contrasting phenotypic and genomic diversity.

ABSTRACT: Domesticated sheep have adapted to contrasting and extreme environments and continue to play important roles in local community-based economies throughout Africa. Here we review the Neolithic migrations of thin-tailed sheep and the later introductions of fat-tailed sheep into eastern Africa. According to contemporary pictorial evidence, the latter occurred in Egypt not before the Ptolemaic period (305-25 BCE). We further describe the more recent history of sheep in Egypt, the Maghreb, west and central Africa, central-east Africa, and southern Africa. We also present a comprehensive molecular survey based on the analysis of 50 K SNP genotypes for 59 African breeds contributed by several laboratories. We propose that gene flow and import of fat-tailed sheep have partially overwritten the div

SUBMITTER: Da Silva A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11666867 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature