Strong phylogeographic relationships among three goat breeds from the Canary Islands.

We partially sequenced the mitochondrial D-loop region in 47 individuals from eleven Spanish and foreign goat breeds. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences allowed us to identify a particular D-loop haplotype shared by individuals from the Palmera, Majorera and Tinerfeña Canarian breeds. Genotyping of 281 goats from 17 different breeds by PCR-Hpall RFLP evidenced that the geographical distribution of this haplotype is restricted to the Canary Islands. This ancestral mitochondrial haplotype might originate in the domestic goat herds brought by the native Canarian inhabitants approximately 3000 years ago. Although we observed other miscellaneous D-loop haplotypes in the Palmera, Majorera and Tinerfeña breeds, any of them allowed us to group individuals from these three populations in a single cluster, a feature that suggests that these haplotypes might have diverse origins. The remarkable degree of phylogeographic structure of the Canary goat breeds with regard to other Spanish and foreign populations might be attributed to the isolation of these breeds in the Canary Islands for approximately 2500 years, without exposure to the migratory movements and commercial trading events that probably affected the genesis of most domestic goat breeds worldwide. The Canarian D-loop haplotype can be efficiently genotyped by using DNA isolated from milk and cheese samples, which paves the way for the future establishment of a Canary breed identity test for these dairy products.