This study investigates the maternal genetic diversity and phylogeographic relationships of the Manavli goat population, a native genotype of Anatolia, using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences. A total of 17 Manavli goats were analysed and compared with reference sequences from other Anatolian goat breeds as well as several global goat breeds. Sequence analyses revealed 30 polymorphic sites defining eight different haplotypes within the Manavli goat population. The haplotype diversity (Hd = 0.824) and nucleotide diversity (π = 0.0128) values indicate a moderate level of genetic variation. Results of the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that approximately 10.18% of the total genetic variation was due to differences among populations ( Fst = 0.1018, P < 0.01), while 89.82% of the variation occurred within populations. In the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) dendrogram constructed with other indigenous Anatolian goat breeds, clustering based on genetic distance revealed a closer genetic relationship between the Manavli and Ankara goats. All phylogenetic and haplotype network analyses demonstrated that the Manavli goat population predominantly clusters within the G and A haplogroups, possessing unique maternal lineages. These findings emphasize the genetic distinctiveness of the Manavli goat and highlight its importance as a local genetic resource for conservation and sustainable breeding programs in Anatolia. To further validate and explore the observed genetic data, it is strongly recommended that future studies include larger sample sizes.
Akbaş et al. (Thu,) studied this question.