title: Capturing goats: documenting two hundred years of mitochondrial DNA diversity among goat populations from Britain and Ireland.
abstract: The domestic goat (Capra hircus) plays a key role in global agriculture, being especially prized in regions of marginal pasture. However, the advent of industrialized breeding has seen a dramatic reduction in genetic diversity within commercial populations, while high extinction rates among feral herds have further depleted the reservoir of genetic variation available. Here, we present the first survey of whole mitochondrial genomic variation among the modern and historical goat populations of Britain and Ireland using a combination of mtDNA enrichment and high throughput sequencing. Fifteen historical taxidermy samples, representing the indigenous 'Old Goat' populations of the islands, were sequenced alongside five modern Irish dairy goats and four feral samples from endangered populations in western Ireland. Phylogenetic and network analyses of European mitochondrial variation revealed distinct groupings dominated by historical British and Irish samples, which demonstrate a degree of maternal genetic structure between the goats of insular and continental Europe. Several Irish modern feral samples also fall within these clusters, suggesting continuity between these dwindling populations and the ancestral 'Old Goats' of Ireland and Britain.
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland cassidl1@tcd.ie.
authors.forename: Lara M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5005-1963
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Cassidy
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7376-9975
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Teasdale
authors.affiliation: Old Irish Goat Society, Mulranny, Ireland.
authors.forename: Seán
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carolan
authors.affiliation: School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Enright
authors.affiliation: Old Irish Goat Society, Mulranny, Ireland.
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Emma K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Finlay
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mattiangeli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007494:Ireland; D010802:Phylogeny; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Capra hircus; conservation; mtDNA Capture; next generation sequencing; taxidermy samples