Genetic diversity in past and present Swedish sheep
KEY POINTS- By studying the sheep's DNA and pedigrees we can describe how much genetic variation that exists in different breeds of sheep in Sweden.
- We have collected samples from more than 1,000 sheep in Sweden.
- We will also investigate DNA from ancient archaeological samples and compare sheep living today and ancient sheep.
Project overview
Participants
More related research
Short summary
We want to find out how much genetic variation there is in the Swedish sheep breeds. We also want to compare modern sheep with sheep that existed in Sweden in the past.
By studying the sheep's DNA and pedigrees we can describe how much genetic variation that exists in different breeds of sheep in Sweden. We are also investigating which Swedish breeds of sheep that are most closely relaetd to each other and how closely related the Swedish breeds of sheep are with breeds of sheep in other countries. We have collected samples from more than 1,000 sheep in Sweden. Some of the samples have already been investigated using different methods, but it is an ongoing project and more samples will be investigated in the future. We have also investigated DNA from ancient archaeological samples and compared sheep living today and ancient sheep. Additional archaelogical samples will be analysed.
Collaborations
In addition to the researchers from SLU, there is also an ongoing collaboration with Torsten Günther at Uppsala University and Juha Kantanen at LUKE in Finkand.