The ancestral origin of the critically endangered Quadricorna sheep as revealed by genome-wide analysis.

ABSTRACT: Livestock European diffusion followed different human migration waves from the Fertile Crescent. In sheep, at least two diffusion waves have shaped the current breeds' biodiversity generating a complex genetic pattern composed by either primitive or fine-wool selected breeds. Among primitive breeds, aside from sharing common ancestral genomic components, they also show several traits such as the policeraty, large horns in the ram, short tail, and a moulting fleece, considered as ancestral. Although most of the primitive breeds characterized by these traits are confined on the very edge of Northern Europe, several residual populations are also scattered in the Mediterranean region. In fact, although in Italy a large number of local breeds are already extinct, others are listed as critically

SUBMITTER: Senczuk G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9605034 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature