Issue |
Genet. Sel. Evol.
Volume 35, Number 5, September-October 2003
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Page(s) | 533 - 557 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/gse:2003038 |
DOI: 10.1051/gse:2003038
Biodiversity of 52 chicken populations assessed by microsatellite typing of DNA pools
Jossi Hillela, Martien A.M. Groenenb, Michèle Tixier-Boichardc, Abraham B. Korold, Lior Davida, Valery M. Kirzhnerd, Terry Burkee, Asili Barre-Dirief, Richard P.M.A. Crooijmansb, Kari Elog, Marcus W. Feldmanh, Paul J. Freidlina, Asko Mäki-Tanilag, Marian Oortwijnb, Pippa Thomsone, Alain Vignali, Klaus Wimmersa0 and Steffen Weigendfa Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental quality sciences, Rehovot 76100, Israel
b Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
c Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Centre de Jouy-en-Josas, France
d Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel
e Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield University, S10 2TN, UK
f Institute for Animal Science, Federal Agricultural Research Centre, Mariensee, 31535 Neustadt, Germany
g Agricultural Research Centre, Institute of Animal Production, 31600 Jokioinen, Finland
h Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
i Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Centre de Toulouse, France
a0 Institute of Animal Breeding Science, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, Germany
(Received 2 September 2002; accepted 13 March 2003)
Abstract
In a project on the biodiversity of chickens funded by the European
Commission (EC), eight laboratories collaborated to assess the genetic
variation within and between 52 populations from a wide range of
chicken types. Twenty-two di-nucleotide microsatellite markers were
used to genotype DNA pools of 50 birds from each population. The
polymorphism measures for the average, the least polymorphic
population (inbred C line) and the most polymorphic population
(Gallus gallus spadiceus) were, respectively, as follows:
number of alleles per locus, per population: 3.5, 1.3 and 5.2; average
gene diversity across markers: 0.47, 0.05 and 0.64; and proportion of
polymorphic markers: 0.91, 0.25 and 1.0. These were in good agreement
with the breeding history of the populations. For instance, unselected
populations were found to be more polymorphic than selected breeds
such as layers. Thus DNA pools are effective in the preliminary
assessment of genetic variation of populations and markers. Mean
genetic distance indicates the extent to which a given population
shares its genetic diversity with that of the whole tested gene pool
and is a useful criterion for conservation of diversity. The
distribution of population-specific (private) alleles and the amount
of genetic variation shared among populations supports the hypothesis
that the red jungle fowl is the main progenitor of the domesticated
chicken.
Key words: genetic distance / polymorphism / red jungle fowl / DNA markers / domesticated chicken
Correspondence and reprints: Jossi Hillel
e-mail: Hillel@agri.huji.ac.il
© INRA, EDP Sciences 2003