Cameroon native goat populations’ genetic diversity and maternal origin assessed by D-loop mtDNA polymorphisms

Our study aimed to estimate genetic diversity and maternal origin of Cameroon native goat populations. Blood samples were randomly collected on 50 native goats belonging to 8 country agro ecological zones representing indigenous sub populations. They are morphologically known in 3 main groups, which are dwarf, medium and long legged. A selected goat mtDNA primer of expected size 778bp from literature was applied. A total of 28 caprine sequences from GenBank were used for edition, correction and alignment using Chromas Lite, Clustal X.2; ATGC PhySic Online software. Our findings showed that mtDNA D-loop sequence is highly variable in studied populations with moderately high frequency of mutations. Mitochondrial diversity of native goat populations was high (Hd = 69, with haplotype diversity = 0.9945) indicating a rich genetic diversity with 5 clades. The Cameroon goat populations belong to Haplogroup A, the most abundant in the world. Based on the previous migratory scenarios, the Cameroon native goats may have various maternal origins, Indian, Middle East and south Mediterranean regions. The results are useful for conservation and subsequent investigations may be undertaken to broaden genetic diversity particularly for production purpose.Key words: Diversity, mtDNA, D-loop sequence, goat populations, Cameroo