Georgian cattle, sheep, goats: are they of Near-Eastern origins?

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to establish the nucleotide sequence of the highly variable region of the D loop of the mitochondrial DNA of some Georgian domestic animal species (cattle, goat, sheep) as well as their phylogenetic position among the worldwide set of domestic animals. In this study, a total of 5 haplogroups (T – 5; T3 – 7; T1 – 1; T2 – 2; T5 – 2) in 17 Georgian Mountain cattle (GMC), 4 haplogroups (A – 15; A2a1 – 3; A1a – 1; A6 – 3) in 22 Georgian goats and 3 haplogroups (A – 10; B – 16; C -15) in 41 Georgian sheeps (15 Imeretian and 26 Tushetian) were detected. This study represents the first attempt of Genetic study of native Georgian livestocks. The GMC, Georgian (Megrelian) goat, Georgian (Imeretian and Tushetian) sheep mitogenomes were grouped phylogenetically in the haplogroups indicating the closeness to the Near Eastern animals.

Keywords

• livestock
• domestication
• kartvelians
• caucasus
• migration