Animal genetic resources: developing the research of allele pool of Russian cattle breeds - minireview

In modern biological science, the study and conservation of biodiversity is considered as one of the important field of research (L.F. Groeneveld et al., 2010). In the twentieth century, only a limited number of breeds was used in animal husbandry worldwide, which led to a significant decrease in the number of local breeds, which until recently were actively involved in agricultural production (B. Rischkowsky et al., 2007). This review describes the current state of knowledge in research of the gene pool of cattle, with special attention paid to Russian genetic resources. The evolution of methods used for the studies of genetic diversity is briefly described. The results of studies of allele pool of cattle breeds based on analysis of polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites are summarized (M.-H. Li et al., 2009; J. Kantanen et al., 2009; P.V. Gorelov et al., 2011; T.Yu. Kiseleva et al., 2014; A.A. Traspov et al., 2011; R. Sharma 2015). The advantages of using single nucleotides polymorphisms (SNP) at genome-wide level to study the population structure and genetic relationships between breeds are discussed (R...