Diversity in five goat populations of the Lombardy Alps: comparison of estimates obtained from morphometric traits and molecular markers

Phenotypic and genetic variability wc re studied within and between the goa t populations of Bionda dell'Adamello, Frisa, Orobica, Verzaschese and Val di Live. These are populations reared for most of the year on pastures of t he Lombardy Alps, numbering a minimum oi 1000 and a maximum of 8000 individ uals per breed. Thr first four standardized breeds of recent formation: at present they are supported thr European Union measures for the conservation of rare breeds. On the basis of its visible generic profile the Val di Liv e goat may be classified as a primary population. Phenotypic variability wa s estimated on the basis of six somatic measurements on 60-140 adult goats per breed, whereas genetic variation was measured on the basis of 201 AFLP loci. The partition of the total molecular variation into the: within and b etween breed components indicates that the majority of the molecular variab ility is conserved within populations, whereas only 8.8% can be attributed to between population variation. Morphometric and molecular marker data pro duced unrelated distance values and different topology of UI'GMA clusters. It may be hypothesized that the morphometric originality of the Val di Livo goat is mostly determined by environmental factors and selection pressure rather than by different origin and genome evolution. Conversely Orobica se ems to have diverged from the other breeds at the genome level, which may b e explained by an undocumented Southern Italian origin. An objective evalua tion of conservation priorities may in the near future be based on the inte grated use of molecular markers and of information on quantitative traits a nd allelic variation with adaptive relevance.