RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Population Genomics Analysis of the Native Irish Galway Sheep Breed
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 645754
DO 10.1101/645754
A1 Gillian P. McHugo
A1 Sam Browett
A1 Imtiaz A. S. Randhawa
A1 Dawn J. Howard
A1 Michael P. Mullen
A1 Ian W. Richardson
A1 Stephen D. E. Park
A1 David A. Magee
A1 Erik Scraggs
A1 Michael Dover
A1 Carolina N. Correia
A1 James P. Hanrahan
A1 David E. MacHugh
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/23/645754.abstract
AB The Galway sheep population is the only native Irish sheep breed and represents an important livestock genetic resource, which is currently categorised as “at-risk”. In the present study, comparative population genomics analyses of Galway sheep and other sheep populations of European origin were used to investigate the microevolution and recent genetic history of the breed. These analyses support the hypothesis that British Leicester sheep were used in the formation of the Galway breed and suggest more recent gene flow from the Suffolk sheep breed. When compared to conventional and endangered breeds, the Galway breed was intermediate in effective population size, genomic inbreeding and runs of homozygosity. This indicates that, although the Galway breed is declining, it is still relatively genetically diverse and that conservation and management plans informed by genomic information may aid its recovery. The Galway breed also exhibited distinct genomic signatures of artificial or natural selection when compared to other breeds, which highlighted candidate genes that may be involved in meat and wool production.