This paper was based on the Hu sheep in China, after collecting the same data about 9 Asiasheep populations and 5 European sheep (breeds in Japan) populations. It clustered 15 populations in terms ofthe gene frequency of 10 loci and 33 allele in blood enzyme and other protein variations. The result of Hierar-chy Clustering showed that the sheep populations in the East and South of Central Asia could be classified intothree genetic groups: Mongolia sheep, South Asia sheep and European sheep, and the Hu sheep belonged toMongolia sheep.
Gene frequencies of Hu sheep and Tong sheep were obtained with“Random sampling in typical colonies of a central area”. Of the 12 loci tested in Hu sheep, 11 loci were polymorphic. Reliability of the estimated frequencies of 27 alleles reached 0.95 except for PoF, TfA,Tff,Hb-βA and CAF which had reliabilities of 0.5222,0.7478,0.5222,0.6212 and 0.899, respectively. Of the 12 loci tested in Tong sheep, 11 loci were polymorphic. Reliability of the estimated frequency of 25 alleles reached 0.95 except for TfA, TfE and CAF which had reliabilities of 0.931,0.6922 and 0.7924, respectively. The average heterozygosity () and average homozygosity (J) was computed and the J of the two sheep colonies was 0.6619 and 0.6448, respectively. Consistent with our conclusions based on genetic data, previous research divided the native sheep populations of East and South Central Asia into three group: the“Mongolian group”,“South-Asian group” and“European group”. Consequently, the degree of genetic similarity between populations and known groups would seem to provide a reliable means of determining the genetic relationships between populations and may reflect the true genetic origin of Hu sheep and Tong sheep in China [Acta Zoologica Sinica 49(1):134-138,2003].
