Sry gene promoter haplotypes reveal asiatic mouflon as paternal ancestor of indian sheep

The Y-chromosome diversity remains unexplored in the Indian sheep (Ovis aries) breeds. A study aimed to understand genetic variation in the sex-determining region Y gene (SRY) promoter region of the three sheep breeds of Karnataka (India) and to understand the paternal origin of these breeds was undertaken. The 611 base pair promoter region of the SRY gene was amplified and sequenced in Mouli, Yalaga, and Kenguri sheep breeds using the Sanger method of sequencing. The orthologous regions for 17 domestic and wild sheep were obtained from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. Multiple sequence alignment using the ClustalW program showed that sheep breeds were identical in the promoter region of the SRY gene on the Y-chromosome, suggesting that these three breeds might have originated from a single paternal source. In conclusion, Y-haplotypes and phylogenetic analysis of sequences indicated that, in line with maternal lineages, the Asiatic mouflon from fertile crescent is the plausible paternal lineage for these sheep breeds.