Genomic insights into the population history and adaptive traits of Latin American Criollo cattle.

Criollo cattle, the descendants of animals brought by Iberian colonists to the Americas, have been the subject of natural and human-mediated selection in novel tropical agroecological zones for centuries. Consequently, these breeds have evolved distinct characteristics such as resistance to diseases and exceptional heat tolerance. In addition to European taurine () ancestry, it has been proposed that gene flow from African taurine and Asian indicine () cattle has shaped the ancestry of Criollo cattle.

Population structure and evolutionary history of the greater cane rat () from the Guinean Forests of West Africa.

Grasscutter () is a large-body old world rodent found in sub-Saharan Africa. The body size and the unique taste of the meat of this major crop pest have made it a target of intense hunting and a potential consideration as a micro-livestock. However, there is insufficient knowledge on the genetic diversity of its populations across African Guinean forests.

Genome-wide investigations reveal the population structure and selection signatures of Nigerian cattle adaptation in the sub-Saharan tropics.

Background: Cattle are considered to be the most desirable livestock by small scale farmers. In Africa, although comprehensive genomic studies have been carried out on cattle, the genetic variations in indigenous cattle from Nigeria have not been fully explored. In this study, genome-wide analysis based on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) of 193 Nigerian cattle was used to reveal new insights on the history of West African cattle and their adaptation to the tropical African environment, particularly in sub-Saharan region.

Genetic variation of Nigerian cattle inferred from maternal and paternal genetic markers.

The African cattle provide unique genetic resources shaped up by both diverse tropical environmental conditions and human activities, the assessment of their genetic diversity will shade light on the mechanism of their remarkable adaptive capacities. We therefore analyzed the genetic diversity of cattle samples from Nigeria using both maternal and paternal DNA markers. Nigerian cattle can be assigned to 80 haplotypes based on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences and haplotype diversity was 0.

Population Genomics Reveals Incipient Speciation, Introgression, and Adaptation in the African Mona Monkey (Cercopithecus mona).

Guenons (tribe Cercopithecini) are the most widely distributed nonhuman primate in the tropical forest belt of Africa and show considerable phenotypic, taxonomic, and ecological diversity. However, genomic information for most species within this group is still lacking. Here, we present a high-quality de novo genome (total 2.

Phenotypic and morphometric differentiation of indigenous chickens from Kenya and other tropical countries augments perspectives for genetic resource improvement and conservation.

Indigenous chickens at the Swahili coast and other traditional migratory corridors in Kenya represent important populations that are inconclusively characterized. Using a comprehensive dataset of Kenyan indigenous chickens and additional mined data of chickens from 8 African and 5 Asian countries, we performed univariate and multivariate assessments to uncover the underlying phenotypic and morphometric variability. Kenyan indigenous chickens expressed differentiation of several qualitative and quantitative traits, both among different counties in the Swahili coast, and among coastal, western, and northern migratory corridors.