Refining the genomic profiles of North African sheep breeds through meta-analysis of worldwide genomic SNP data.

INTRODUCTION: The development of reproducible tools for the rapid genotyping of thousands of genetic markers (SNPs) has promoted cross border collaboration in the study of sheep genetic diversity on a global scale.

METHODS: In this study, we collected a comprehensive dataset of 239 African and Eurasian sheep breeds genotyped at 37,638 filtered SNP markers, with the aim of understanding the genetic structure of 22 North African (NA) sheep breeds within a global context.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We revealed asubstantial enrichment of the gene pool between the north and south shores of the Mediterranean Sea, which corroborates the importance of the maritime route in the history of livestock. The genetic structure of North African breeds mirrors the differential composition of genetic backgrounds following the breed history. Indeed, Maghrebin sheep stocks constitute a geographically and historically coherent unit with any breed-level genetic distinctness among them due to considerable gene flow. We detected a broad east-west pattern describing the most important trend in NA fat-tailed populations, exhibited by the genetic closeness of Egyptian and Libyan fat-tailed sheep to Middle Eastern breeds rather than Maghrebin ones. A Bayesian FST scan analysis revealed a set of genes with potentially key adaptive roles in lipid metabolism ( BMP2, PDGFD VEGFA, TBX15, and WARS2 ), coat pigmentation ( SOX10, PICK1, PDGFRA, MC1R, and MTIF ) and horn morphology RXFP2 ) in Tunisian sheep. The local ancestry method detected a Merino signature in Tunisian Noire de Thibar sheep near the SULF1 gene introgressed by Merino's European breeds. This study will contribute to the general picture of worldwide sheep genetic diversity.