Browsing by Author "Wheto, Mathew"

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    Genetic Diversity in Exon 2 of the Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II DQB1 Locus in Nigerian Goats
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2013-04-12) Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Salako, Adebowale E.; Donato, Marcos De; Takeet, Michael I.; Peters, S.O; Adefenwa, Mufliat A; Okpeku, Moses; Wheto, Mathew; Agaviezor, Brilliant O.; Sanni, Timothy M; Ajayi, Oyeyemi O.; Onasanya, Gbolabo O; Ekundayo, Oludotun J; Ilori, Babatunde M; Amusan, Samuel A; Imumorin, I.G
    The DQB1 locus is located in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II region and involved in immune response. We identified 20 polymorphic sites in a 228 bp fragment of exon 2, one of the most critical regions of the MHC DQB1 gene, in 60 Nigerian goats. Four sites are located in the peptide binding region, and 10 amino acid substitutions are peculiar to Nigerian goats, compared with published sequences. A significantly higher ratio of nonsynonymous/synonymous substitutions (dN/dS) suggests that allelic sequence evolution is driven by balancing selection (P\0.01). In silico functional analysis using PANTHER predicted that substitution P56R, with a subPSEC score of -4.00629 (Pdeleterious = 0.73229), is harmful to protein function. The phylogenetic tree from consensus sequences placed the two northern breeds closer to each other than either was to the southern goats. This first report of sequence diversity at the DQB1 locus for any African goat breed may be useful in the search for disease-resistant genotypes
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    MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF PHENOTYPIC DIFFERENTIATION IN BUNAJI AND SOKOTO GUDALI CATTLE
    (Department of Animal Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi., 2010-12-04) Yakubu, Abdulmojeed; Idahor, K.O; Haruna, Hadiza Salihu; Wheto, Mathew; Amusan, Samuel
    The study aimed at examining morphometric differentiation in two Nigerian breeds of cattle using multifactorial discriminant analyses. Ten morphological traits (withers height, rump height,chest circumference, body length, face length, tail length, rump length, head width, rump width and shoulder width) of 224 Bunaji and 87 Sokoto Gudali cattle were measured. The animals, which were aged 2.5−3.6 years, were subjected to extensive management system. The linear type traits of Sokoto Gudali cattle were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those of their Bunaji counterparts, with the exception of body length and face length respectively. The stepwise discriminant analysis gave a better resolution as only three variables, rump width, withers height and face length were more discriminating in separating the two cattle breeds. The Mahalanobis distance (7.19) between the two cattle populations was high and significant, which is an indication that they belong to genetically different groups. This was complemented by the result of the Nearest Neighbour Discriminant Analysis, where 85.48% of Bunaji cattle were classified into their source population while 96.55% of their Sokoto Gudali counterparts were correctly assigned into their source genetic group. The present phenotypic information will be the basis for the establishment of further characterization, conservation and selection strategies for the two Nigerian breeds of cattle.