Conservation Genetics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Wild Goats in The Barzan District of The Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The genetic assessment of Capra aegagrus in Barzan district, Kurdistan region, north of Iraq, was investigated. Thirteen blood samples were collected from twelve different locations. Partial mitochondrial D-loop region targeting 756 bp was amplified through a set of specific primers. Several genetic tests were performed to assess the phylogenetic and genetic variation among them and neighborhood-studied samples. In total, 47 sequences were used for phylogenetic tree construction, including 13 studied samples and 34 neighborhood sequences. These sequences were put into six distinct clades in the phylogenetic tree in which the Barzan sequences were found in the clade I and II. These clades included Turkish and Iranian sequences. Genetic differentiation (Fst) showed that Barzan sequences were closely related to Iranian and Turkish wild goats, being 0.21193 and 0.27451, respectively. There was a clear gene flow (Nm) of Barzan sequences with Iranian (0.93) and Turkish (0.66) wild goats. There was a medium rate of genetic diversity among the Barzan sequences. The nucleotide diversity (π) was 0.0423, and average number of nucleotide differences (K) was 24.026. The highest pairwise distance was found between Silke and the Turkish sequence (EF989489), being 0.1611, and the lowest value was recorded between Shkafte Valley Two and the Iranian sequence (EF989610), being 0.0278. There was a clear genetic distance among Barzan sequences in which the highest pairwise distance was between Alka and Dore (0.0825), and the lowest one was between Bedaron and Zrara (0.00). This study indicates a close relationship among Barzan, Iran, and Turkey wild goats.