Is it possible to obtain zero estimates of genetic diversity? A case study of the Nigerian indigeneous goat breeds at the β-lactoglobulin gene locus

The current investigation was conducted to appraise the genetic diversity and genetic distance of three goat populations namely; Red Sokoto, Sahel and West African Dwarf (WAD), in Nigeria, making use of blood samples collected from 20, 20 and 20 individual from which blood DNAs were extraction, respectively. The DNAs extracted were used to study polymorphism at the β-lactoglobulin gene locus using RLFP-PCR process. Results revealed that the mean total number of alleles was 1 while the effective number of alleles was also 1. The percentage of polymorphic locus was 0% while Shannon's information index, observed homozygousity, expected heterozygosity, unbiased expected heterozygosity and inbreeding coefficient (F) were all observed to be 0.000. The pairwise Fst was 0.000 between all the breeds of goats. Variation within and between the populations of goats was 0% at p>0.05. The genetic distance between the goat breeds was 0.000. The present study revealed that RLFP-PCR may not be a powerful tool for the study of the β-lactoglobulin gene locus and hence other methodologies should be employed for a broader judgment on the genetic status of the goat population at the locus.