Population Genetic Relationships between Mouflon and Domesticated Sheep Breeds in Highly Polymorphic Genomic Elements

A comparative analysis of population-genetic structures of three indigenous sheep breeds (Kalmyk, Edilbay, and Karachay breeds) and closely related wild species of the European Mouflon has been performed with polylocus genotyping at the highly polymorphic fragments of genomic DNA flanked by inverted repeats of microsatellite loci and a long terminal repeat region of endogenous retrovirus BERV-K1 (ISSR-PCR and IRAP-PCR markers). Increased genetic heterogeneity of ISSR-PCR and IRAP-PCR markers in males compared to females is revealed in all of the tested animal groups. The spectra of amplification products, including breed- and species-specific genomic DNA fragments, are identified. Genotyping for them may contribute to the control over the process of consolidation of breeds and intrabreed groups. Representatives of the European Mouflon are found to be different from the domesticated sheep in higher-rank polymorphism in the fragments of genomic DNA flanked by inverted repeats of BERV-K1, which may indicate the mobile genetic elements involved in the population-genetic differentiation between the domesticated and closely related wild species.