Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Iraqi Camel Breeds using Cytochrome b

This study aimed to investigate the genetic diversity, population structure, and demographic history of Iraqi camel breeds. Eighty blood samples were randomly collected from unrelated animals from different parts of Iraq. Fifty samples of the Joudi breed were collected from Basrah, Al-Muthanna, Najaf, Babylon,and Wasit (10 samples each). As well as 15 samples of the Khwar breed from Anbar and 15 samples of the Hurra breed from DhiQar. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was employed in order to determine the genetic variability within and among populations of camel breeds. The neutrality tests and mismatch distribution analysis were also applied to assess the neutrality and demographic expansion of the populations, respectively. The results revealed a total of 16 polymorphic with high haplotype diversity (0.648) and low-nucleotide diversity (0.00109). The haplotypes of the cytochrome b (Cytb) gene were 15 haplotypes, 10 of which were in the Joudi breed, 6 in the Hurra breed and one haplotype in the Khwar breed. The haplotype H-2 was common to the three breeds. The variations within and among populations accounted for 94.36 and 5.64% of the total variation, respectively. The results of the neutrality test for Cytb showed that the Joudi and Hurra breeds had negative values for both Tajima’s D and Fu’s Fs. The highest values were -1.00737 and -1.98591 for the Hurra breed and the lowest values were for the Joudi breed (-2.14737 and -6.59079 respectively). In the Khwar breed, the values were zero for Tajima’s D and Fu’s Fs and the obtained result conforms to the model of population expansion (t > 0 and θ1> θ0) for Joudi and Hurra breeds.