Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ANIMAL SCIENCE PAPERS AND REPORTS, cilt.40, sa.4, ss.375-392, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
Environmental challenges and preference of high-yielding breeds have resulted in extinction of
various local cattle populations as well as the loss of genetic diversity in modern cattle breeds. Genetic
diversity, however, plays a vital role both in cattle industry to meet current and future demand
for milk and beef and in adaptation to different environmental challenges for animals. Thanks to
developing molecular genetics and bioinformatics tools, genetic data including microsatellites and
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) can be detected across the genome and can be analysed to
reveal genetic diversity within and between cattle populations. Until recently, microsatellite markers
were commonly used to estimate genetic diversity in both local and exotic cattle breeds. Today,
however, SNP arrays are the most preferred technology for genetic diversity analysis, since they
are time-efficient and easy to access and apply. Moreover, developments in sequencing technology
with affordable costs have made it possible to obtain SNP data across the genome via whole genome
resequencing. It is foreseen that whole genome resequencing will be routinely used to estimate
genetic diversity periodically not only in cattle but also in the other livestock species as well in the
future. In this study, the most commonly preferred molecular methods to reveal genetic diversity
in cattle were discussed and some bioinformatics tools to analyse genetic data were summarised.