Associations of live weight and genotypic diversity of deer populations of the Chukchi and Even breeds of the Far North-East of Russia

The results of the study of associations of live weight and genotypic traits in agricultural populations of domestic reindeer in the Magadan region and the Chukotka Autonomous District are presented. The studies were conducted between 2020 and 2022 at four agricultural enterprises in Chukotka and the Magadan region. The study utilized zootechnical data from the annual reports of agricultural enterprises in the Chukotka Autonomous District and the Severo-Evensky District of the Magadan region. The study utilized the live weight of animals sold for meat, calculated as the 10-year arithmetic mean for each sex and age group. The material for genetic studies consisted of tissue samples (ear notches) from reindeer of different sex and age groups. A total of 925 samples were used in the molecular genetic studies. Individual genotyping of the animals was performed using the ISSR-PCR method. The relationship between ISSR marker polymorphism and productive traits in the Chukchi and Even reindeer breeds had not been studied prior to this research. Chukotka reindeer populations exhibited 12% lower average number of alleles per locus and 11.0% lower number of effective alleles per locus compared to Even breeds. The values of the correlation coefficient between the live weight and genetic diversity indicators in the populations of the Chukotka and Even breeds for all age and sex groups of reindeer were respectively equal to: for the average number of alleles per locus r = 0.347 and 336, the number of effective alleles r = 0.534 and 0.546; theoretical heterozygosity 0.570 and 0.538, respectively. The obtained data allow us to state the dependence of the live weight of reindeer on the genotypic diversity in the populations of the Chukchi and Even breeds.