Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026

Use of Bisection to Reduce Mitochondrial DNA in the Bovine Oocyte
Published on: July 6, 2022
Genetic diversity of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in Chinese native buffalo
C Z Lei1, C M Zhang, S Weining
1Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, China.
Abstract:
The origins of the domestic water buffalo remain contentious. To better understand the origins of Chinese water buffalo, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b (MT-CYB) gene from 270 individuals representing 13 Chinese domestic swamp buffalo populations. We found genetic evidence of introgression of river buffalo into Chinese swamp buffalo herds. Swamp buffalo haplotypes can be divided into two highly divergent lineages (A and B), suggesting that Chinese native swamp buffalo have two maternal origins. We found that the A→G transition in the buffalo MT-CYB gene stop codon resulted in buffalo haplotypes being terminated by one of two stop codons: AGA or AGG. AGA is common to river buffalo and lineage A of swamp buffalo, while AGG is specific to lineage B of swamp buffalo. Lineage A appears to have been domesticated in China. Further genetic evidence is required to clarify the origins of lineage B.
Related Concept Videos
Animal Mitochondrial Genetics
Export of Mitochondrial and Chloroplast Genes
Gene Duplication and Divergence
The duplicated copies of the gene are called Paralogs. Paralogs with similar sequences and functions form a gene family. Across several species, a large number of gene families are characterized.
Synteny and Evolution
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...
Multi-species Conserved Sequences
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved DNA...
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon has three reading...

