[Study on mitochondrial DNA genetic polymorphism of some yak breeds in China]

This study determined yak's complete sequence of mitochondrial DNA control region (D-loop) of 35 individuals in 5 yak breeds at the first time. The result showed that the length of D-loop in yak was 891 -895 bp. Content of nucleotide T, C, A, G were 28.5%, 25.3%, 32.5% and 13.7% respectively. There were 55 polymorphic sites (6.16% in total analyzed sites). The transition,transversion and insertion/deletion were found in this region.24 haplotypes was defined in this study, in which haplotype H4 and H6 were major haplotypes of Chinese yak. The distribution of all the haplotypes among the breeds was disequilibrium. The average diversity of haplotypes were 0.9697 +/-0.0180, indicating the abundance of haplotypes of yak's D-loop. The average nucleotide difference and the nucleotide diversity in Chinese yak breeds were 10.936% and 1.231% respectively. Nucleotide divergence and Kimura 2-parameter distance between yak breeds were 0.760% -2.155%, and 0.000-0.029 respectively. The results indicated that the genetic diversity of Chinese yak was very abundant. Analysis of molecular variance and network construction results indicated that there was significant divergence among Chinese yak breeds. The network construction indicated that Chinese yak had been divided into 2 types and had probably 2 maternal origins or 2 domesticated places.