Genetic diversity in Spanish donkey breeds using microsatellite DNA markers

Abstract

Genetic diversity at 13 equine microsatellite loci was compared in five endangered Spanish donkey breeds: Andaluza, Catalana, Mallorquina, Encartaciones and Zamorano-Leonesa. All of the equine microsatellites used in this study were amplified and were polymorphic in the domestic donkey breeds with the exception of HMS1, which was monomorphic, and ASB2, which failed to amplify. Allele number, frequency distributions and mean heterozygosities were very similar among the Spanish donkey breeds. The unbiased expected heterozygosity (HE) over all the populations varied between 0.637 and 0.684 in this study. The low GST value showed that only 3.6% of the diversity was between breeds (P < 0.01). Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were shown for a number of locus-population combinations, except HMS5 that showed agreement in all analysed populations. The cumulative exclusion probability (PE) was 0.999 in each breed, suggesting that the loci would be suitable for donkey parentage testing. The constructed dendrogram from the DA distance matrix showed little differentiation between Spanish breeds, but great differentiation between them and the Moroccan ass and also with the horse, used as an outgroup. These results confirm the potential use of equine microsatellite loci as a tool for genetic studies in domestic donkey populations, which could also be useful for conservation plans.

Evaluation of the genetic diversity and population structure of Chinese indigenous horse breeds using 27 microsatellite markers

“…The genetic differentiation (FST) parameter suggests an overall differentiation of 2.4% between the Chinese horse breeds we tested. This is comparable with a previously reported value of 2.8% for the total genetic variance among Chinese domestic buffalo breeds (Zhang et al 2007) and a 3.6% differentiation observed among Spanish donkey breeds (Aranguren-Méndez et al 2001). Genetic differentiation among three Pantaneiro horse breeds (FST = 0.008-0.064) was also low (Giacomoni et al2008).…”

Genetic conservation of five endangered Spanish donkey breeds

“…The first PC accounts for 52.0% of the underlying variation, the second PC condenses 15.0% and the third PC accounts for 13.8% of the variation. The first component, which explain more than the half of the existent variation, clearly separates the Spanish donkey breeds from the Moroccan ass population, and within the Spaniards, grouping closely the Catalana and Mallorquina breeds, in a similar way to the obtained in other studies (Aranguren-Mé ndez et al 2001). Figure 3 shows a NJ phylogenetic tree, constructed from the simple allele-sharing distance between 109 individuals, 20 animals taken at random from each population of Spanish donkeys, except for the Moroccan ass population in which all nine individuals were used.…”

“…In addition to this, the usefulness of global evaluations of diversity using molecular markers for the choice of breeds is worthy of conservation. We hope that this information and that reported previously (Aranguren-Mé ndez et al 2001;Jordana et al 2001) will significantly contribute to the establishment of a sensible preservation strategy for these populations.…”

Equine sarcoids are not induced by an infectious cell line

“…This kit includes 17 microsatellite (short tandem repeat) markers, recommended by the International Society for Animal Genetics, in a one-tube multiplex PCR mix. In addition to genotyping horse breeds, previous data have demonstrated the use of several of these markers for the genotyping of donkeys (Aranguren-Mendez et al 2001;Jordana et al 2001).…”