Genetic variations in horse using microsatellite markers

Genetic variations has been analyzed using five microsatellite markers (AHT4, HTG10, ABS2, ABS23 and CA245) in three horse breeds in Egypt (Arabian, Thoroughbred and Egyptian Native). All the microsatellites typed in this study can be considered informative they produced a number of alleles ranged from eight alleles for the microsatellites ABS23, CA245 to 13 alleles for the microsatellite HTG10. The most polymorphic microsatellite was HTG10. The values of He for the five microsatellite studied were: 0.754, 0.829 and 0.807 for the breeds Arabian, Thoroughbred and Egyptian Native, respectively. The highest He value for all markers was detected in Thoroughbred breed, then The Egyptian Native and lastly in The Arabian breed. The mean values of PIC which obtained from the present study ranged from 0.686 to 0.764. Fst value may indicate the presence of gene flow between horse breeds. The values of genetic distances and phylogeny tree proved that Arabian and Native horses are coming from one ancestor while the Thoroughbred is coming from another ancestor. The values obtained for allele diversity, heterozygosity, inbreeding measurements and gene diversity showed that horse breeds understudy, moreover the present study results points to the usefulness of evaluations of diversity using molecular markers for the choice of breeds worthy of conservation.