author(s)
PM Azhar, D Chakraborty, Simran Singh, Anamika, Kawardeep Kour, Aditi Lal Koul, Dhirendra Kumar and Nishant Kumar

abstract
The present study was performed to reveal genetic bottleneck in Poonchi sheep breed (Ovis aries) raised in Poonch district of Jammu & Kashmir in India using genotypes for microsatellite markers. In the present study, six microsatellite markers, namely, MAF70, SPS113, OarFCB128, OarFCB48, BM1329 and MAF209 were used to study the genetic bottleneck in the Poonchi sheep. The number of alleles examined by all the microsatellite markers in the present study ranges from 4 to 9. Moreover, the highest and lowest expected heterozygosity (He) were observed to be as 0.879 and 0.725 for MAF70 and BM1329, respectively. The expected numbers of loci with heterozygosity excess in Poonchi sheep were 3.51 (P<.05), 3.60 (P<0.05) and 3.62 (P>0.05) for Infinite Allele Model (IAM), Two Phase Model of Mutation (TPM) model and Stepwise Mutation Model (SMM), respectively in Sign test. The IAM, TPM and SMM values for one tail for heterozygosity excess in Wilcoxon rank test were significant (P<0.05) indicated all the loci deviates from mutation-drift equilibrium. None normal 'L' shaped distribution of mode-shift test suggested that there was recent bottleneck in the existing population, providing important information for formulation of sheep breeding strategies and conservation of sheep breed.