Genetic diversity and population structure among eight Chinese indigenous goat breeds in the Yellow River valley

Abstract Indigenous goat breeds of China are advantageous because of their better adaptation to specific environments and traits of cultural, historical and scientific value. In the present study, the population structure and genetic diversity of eight Chinese indigenous goat populations and a population of Boer goat as an outlier were analyzed by typing 16 microsatellite markers. Mean unbiased estimates of expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.641 in Zhongwei goat to 0.718 in Jingning Grey goat. An overall heterozygote deficiency across all loci was observed (P