Genetic Diversity and Candidate Selection Signatures in Hungarian and Romanian Carpathian Water Buffalo Inferred from Cross-Species SNP-Array Genotyping
Simple Summary The Carpathian water buffalo is a regional livestock resource in Central and Eastern Europe, but little is known about its genetic background. This study compared buffalo from Hungary and Romania using genome-wide marker data generated with a cattle genotyping array. The results show that both populations retain moderate genetic diversity. The Romanian animals had slightly higher diversity, whereas the Hungarian animals showed more long homozygous genome segments, which may indicate stronger recent relatedness or a more restricted breeding structure. The candidate regions for positive selection included genomic regions that may be associated with immune response, reproduction, growth, milk production and heat or cold tolerance. Because the marker array was designed for cattle and sample sizes differed between countries, the findings should be considered a first genomic baseline rather than final evidence of causal variants. The results can support future conservation planning and more detailed studies using buffalo-specific genomic tools.