Nuclear- and Mitochondrial Marker-Based Research of Russia's Ural and Central Regions Goat Population Structure

The study of animal biodiversity is an important task of fundamental biology. Population genetic studies of domesticated species provide information on the history of the species and the current status of genetic resources. The goat is one of the first domesticated animal species widely used in agriculture and is also of interest as a subject of population studies. The species is characterized by a wide biodiversity, represented by native and transboundary breeds. In our country, the majority of goats are kept on small private farms, where the animals have not been subjected to the rigorous process of artificial selection and are in fact a unique object for research. Local populations carry a genetic resource of traditional systems of nature management, and their gene pool may contain genetic traces of the disappeared breeds of folk selection. This is also of particular interest due to the presence on the territory of the country of unexplored ancient migration routes and proximity to the centers of domestication. Unlike pedigree-down goats, whose populations are located near the southern and south-eastern borders of the country, the genetic diversity of animals from the main, central part of the country has not been characterized before. At the research station of IOGEN RAS "Shakhovskaya"a population was formed on the basis of animals kept in the traditional way on private farms in rural areas on the border of Moscow, Tver, and Smolensk. In this article, population genetic analysis of this population and populations from two mining and factory districts of the Urals is carried out, as well as their comparison with existing factory breeds of different productivity direction.