Evaluation of genetic diversity and conservation priorities for Egyptian chickens

Abstract

In this study, 21 microsatellite markers were used to genotype 196 Egyptian local chickens obtained from Fayoumi (n = 35), Dandarawy (n = 30), Baladi (n = 29), Sinai (n = 30), El-Salam (n = 36), and Golden Montazah (n = 36) strains. The results were compared to two pure commercial chicken populations reared in Japan-White Leghorn (n = 42) and Rhode Island Red (n = 43). A total of 162 alleles were observed, with an average of 7.7 alleles per locus. The average expected heterozygosity for the Egyptian chickens was 0.595. The closest pairwise Nei’s genetic distance was recorded between Sinai and Golden Montazah (0.038) and the smallest pairwise FST value (0.006) was observed between Baladi and Sinai. The most probable structure clustering of the eight studied populations was at K = 6. Baladi, Sinai and Golden Montazah strains were clustered together forming admixed mosaic cluster. Dandarawy ranked firstly and contributed the most to aggregate genetic diversity based on two prioritization methods. The information resulting from this study may be used as an initial guide to design further investigations for development of sustainable genetic improvement and conservation programs for the Egyptian chicken genetic resources

Sinai and Norfa chicken diversity revealed by microsatellite markers

“…the locus LEI0234 had three private alleles in two distant populations). In the current study, 13.18% of specific alleles were slightly lower than those previously reported in Egyptian local chicken breeds which showed a range of 16.04% (Ramadan et al, 2012) to 45.28 % (Roushdy et al, 2012a) of total observed alleles. Regarding the private alleles as previously reported in Sinai chicken populations, a minimum value of 2 and a maximum value of 4 specific alleles were observed by Ramadan et al (2012) and El-Tanany et al (2011), respectively.…”

“…Generally, local Egyptian chicken breeds yielded MNA/breed per locus which ranged between 2.33 and 6.67 using different numbers of loci, breeds and sampled individuals. The mean value of effective alleles/ locus were cited in the range of 2.9 -5.232 (Roushdy et al, 2013b;Roushdy et al, 2012a), while mean effective number of alleles per breed previously detected in Sinai chickens ranged from 1.774 (Farrag et al, 2013) to 3.4 (Ramadan et al, 2012). This indicates that our results revealed higher effective number of alleles (6.343) than previous studies.…”

“…Norfa and Sinai chicken strains in this study had a high effective number of alleles (greater than 4) with a general mean of 6.634 alleles/locus, indicating that the sample size was adequate, reflecting the efficiency of the used set of loci and its richness of genetic information. Sinai chickens were previously investigated and it had been reported that the MNA/breed per locus observed for this breed ranged between 2.33 (Farrag et al, 2013) using 3 loci and 5.4 (Ramadan et al, 2012) using 21 loci. Generally, local Egyptian chicken breeds yielded MNA/breed per locus which ranged between 2.33 and 6.67 using different numbers of loci, breeds and sampled individuals.…”

“…Two of them, Norfa and Sinai chickens, are local strains; yet, there is no molecular information available about Norfa chickens. Microsatellite markers were used previously to investigate diversity in some of the local Egyptian chicken strains (Ramadan et al, 2012;Roushdy et al, 2012a;Roushdy et al, 2012b;Roushdy et al, 2012c;Farrag et al, 2013;Roushdy et al, 2013a;Roushdy et al, 2013b;Roushdy et al, 2013c). The goal of the present research was therefore to use microsatellite markers to study the construction and diversity of two local Egyptian chicken strains (a first for Norfa chickens).…”

“…Egypt owns resourceful chicken breeds, varieties and strains that are extremely well adapted to the poor environment and considered as a huge gene-bank (El-Tanany et al, 2011;Ramadan et al, 2012). Two of them, Norfa and Sinai chickens, are local strains; yet, there is no molecular information available about Norfa chickens.…”