The interaction of livestock with ecosystem plays a vital role in sustainability of life. The demand of livestock products is rising day by day which is changing the relationship between livestock and natural resources. Livestock animals are playing a major role towards domestication and also contributing to fulfill human needs through meat and milk production for food industry, which generate big revenues. Pakistan is blessed with the world's best livestock species and there is a need to establish a well characterized system for the classification and identification of these important livestock species.
Mitochondrial DNA is of small size, constitutes a small fraction of the total of cell's genome and due to high rate of mutation, it is considered to be an ideal model to study evolutionary relationships. DNA barcoding is being used to characterize animals by using a standard region of mitochondrial DNA as a molecular marker. The study is designed to develop the DNA barcode for genetic characterization of livestock species of Pakistan which includes sheep, goat, cow, buffalo and camel.
Blood samples were collected from the selected livestock species. Primers were designed using primer designing free-ware software. The amplified PCR products weresequenced in both orientations by chain termination method. For data analysis,Chromas was used to read sequencing results. To study variation in all sequenced data, alignment tools were used from NCBI. Theblastnalignment tool available at NCBI is more reliable to give authentic results.The alignment results showed 100% homology with the reference sequences (No SNP or mutation was identified). The results can further be validated with the help of mass level sampling to rationalize the study at population level.Phylogenetic analysis indicated that COIDNA barcode region can be used to discriminate unknown samples of any of the species under consideration. The COIgene successfully cladded already reported sequences of the same species.
This study provided genetic data which help in species identification, to assess evolutionary pattern and genetic diversity. So, it will also be helpful to monitor legal or illegal trade of livestock species and to identify processed and unprocessed meat for quality assurance. Establishment of an elaborated DNA barcode system for livestock species will help to start taxonomic investigation and will lead towards to identify many new mammalian species of Pakistan.