title: Mitochondrial DNA lineages of Italian Giara and Sarcidano horses.
abstract: Giara and Sarcidano are 2 of the 15 extant native Italian horse breeds with limited dispersal capability that originated from a larger number of individuals. The 2 breeds live in two distinct isolated locations on the island of Sardinia. To determine the genetic structure and evolutionary history of these 2 Sardinian breeds, the first hypervariable segment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was sequenced and analyzed in 40 Giara and Sarcidano horses and compared with publicly available mtDNA data from 43 Old World breeds. Four different analyses, including genetic distance, analysis of molecular variance, haplotype sharing, and clustering methods, were used to study the genetic relationships between the Sardinian and other horse breeds. The analyses yielded similar results, and the FST values indicated that a high percentage of the total genetic variation was explained by between-breed differences. Consistent with their distinct phenotypes and geographic isolation, the two Sardinian breeds were shown to consist of 2 distinct gene pools that had no gene flow between them. Giara horses were clearly separated from the other breeds examined and showed traces of ancient separation from horses of other breeds that share the same mitochondrial lineage. On the other hand, the data from the Sarcidano horses fit well with variation among breeds from the Iberian Peninsula and North-West Europe: genetic relationships among Sarcidano and the other breeds are consistent with the documented history of this breed.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Unità di Zoologia Archeozoologia e Genetica, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Unità di Zoologia Archeozoologia e Genetica, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy auseli@uniss.it.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Useli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Unità di Zoologia Archeozoologia e Genetica, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sanna
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Unità di Zoologia Archeozoologia e Genetica, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barbato
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Immunogenetica, Ospedale Microcitemico, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Contu
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani" Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pala
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cancedda
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Natura e del Territorio, Unità di Zoologia Archeozoologia e Genetica, Università di Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Francalacci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D006736:Horses / Q000235:genetics*; D007558:Italy
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial