Heritage Finnish Landrace chickens are genetically diverse and geographically structured

ABSTRACT

The Finnish Landrace breed of chickens (in Finnish suomalainen maatiaiskana) traces its origins to almost 1,000 years ago. Today, remnant populations of phenotypically distinct lineages are maintained by a network of volunteer hobbyists in Finland, managed by Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). Guided by a prior Major Histocompatibility Complex B-locus haplotype study, we sought now to characterize genetically Finnish Landrace chickens using denser genomic sampling. A new panel of 101 selectively neutral SNP sites was used to interrogate genetic variation in 192 individuals sampled from 13 putatively distinctive population units. Individuals partitioned into K = 11 genetic clusters characterized by high levels of genetic diversity, strong patterns of genetic structure and low levels of inbreeding. Evidence of an undocumented genetic lineage was also discovered. Facilitated by an inexpensive SNP assay, this study shows that the genetic integrity of the Finnish Landrace persists and represents a rich resource of natural (adaptive) genomic variation.

KEYWORDS:

• Finnish Landrace
• heritage chicken breed
• SNP genotyping
• population structure
• genetic diversity

Acknowledgements

We thank all of the dedicated owners of the Finnish Landrace chicken breeds who allowed us to collect samples for this study. Their participation in the conservation program network helps insure the continued preservation of these remarkable chickens. Miika Tapio from Natural Resources Institute Finland, Jokioinen, Finland provided invaluable assistance in collection of all samples. Scott Weigel and Alexander Miron (Agriplex Genomics) converted the KASP targets into the multiplexed PlexSeq panel and generated the SNP data used in this manuscript. The UW-Madison Biotechnology Center donated computer time for computationally intensive portions of data analysis. Time and resources required by this project were generously provided by all authors and their affiliated institutions including volunteers participating in the conservation network program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

Upon reasonable request, data supporting the findings of this study are available for research purposes from the authors.