Title: Palmera goat's genetic structure using molecular and genealogical data

Abstract

The Palmera goat is one of the three goat breeds present in the Canary archipelago. The objective of this study is to evaluate the genetic structure using molecular data, as well as genealogical data, in addition to characterizing the breed, as well as determining the levels of variability and inbreeding. Also, the intra- and inter-population variability and the genetic distances between the different farms were analysed. For this, two different databases were used, on the one hand, we have the molecular information obtained from 3,058 goats from 8 different farms and genealogical information of 21,553 goats from 77 herds, both provided by the Association of breeders of the Palm Goat. To obtain the molecular data, 19 DNA microsatellite markers were used, most of them present an adequate polymorphism information content (PIC) value. The observed heterozygosity presented quite adequate values [0.4749,0.5646]. The Wright statistics in all cases were very close to zero, thus coinciding with the state of heterozygosity, as well as its evolution over the years. Through the genetic distances, the dendrogram and the scatter plot, it can be stated that we are dealing with a cohesive, homogeneous population, as well as a well-characterized breed. Also, it has been possible to deduce that the most distant farm is LA. As a result of the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) carried out, it was concluded that most of the variation took place between individuals, being minimal between the different populations. In addition, a mean generation interval of 4.2 years was observed.