title: Mitochondrial diversity in mountain horse population from the South-Eastern Europe.
abstract: It is believed that population structure of mountain horse breeds is preserved from any genetic introgression, because of their geographical isolation and specific semi-wild life style of husbandry. Till date there are no molecular data for the Balkan horses. In this study we try to give information about some autochthonous mountain horse breeds from Bulgaria. A total of 121 horses from three different mountain massifs are presented: Stara Planina (the Balkan mountain), the Rhodopes and Rila-Pirin massif were genotyped according to mitochondrial D-loop region. The results showed huge diversity of all known haplogroups with exception of C, F and R. West Eurasian haplogroups B, D, M and L were with the highest frequencies. Haplogroups A, J, I, O'P and Q were also observed with the highest frequencies, but not equally distributed among the three populations. Analyses of the horse breeds reveal preserved genetic profile of the Balkan and the Rhodopes mountains populations. In contrast, a Rila-Pirin breed unexpectedly showed mixed profile - a massive genetic introgression with an Asiatic-type haplogroups. A similar mixed Euro-Asiatic haplotype profile possessed the Carpathian mountain pony, although both populations are separated geographically and historically. The genetic pool of three Bulgarian mountain horse populations is highly heterogenic and because of that these breeds should be preserved.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hristov
authors.affiliation: b National Horse Association , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Georgi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yordanov
authors.affiliation: b National Horse Association , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ivanova
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mitkov
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sirakova
authors.affiliation: c Agricultural Academy, Agricultural and Stockbreeding Experimental Station , Smolyan , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mehandzyiski
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Georgi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Radoslavov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D002031:Bulgaria; D014644:Genetic Variation; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D006239:Haplotypes; D006736:Horses / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: D-loop region; mountain horse breed; population structure