Study of Genetic Diversity in Iranian Turkmen Horse by Four Microsatellite Markers

The aim of this study was to assess the genetic diversity of Iranian Turkmen Horse using microsatellite markers (HMS02, HMS03, HMS07 and AHT04). Blood samples were collected from 51 Turkmen horses in Khorasan Shomali province, Iran. Genomic DNA was extracted and then standard Polymerase Chain Reaction performed to amplify the microsatellite markers using specific primers. The PCR products were electrophoresed on 8% polyacrylamide gel. The results have demonstrated that the number of alleles in these loci varied from 9 to 12 with mean value of 10.5. HMS02 and HMS07 had the highest (12) and the lowest (9) number of alleles, respectively. HMS02 had the highest (0.8847) and HMS03 had the lowest (0.8039) heterozygosity rates. Also, polymorphic information content (PIC) was the highest (0.86) in HMS07and the lowest (0.77) in HMS03. Finally, the highest and the lowest value of Shannon index were estimated in HMS07 and AHT04, respectively. Results have shown that these four microsatellite loci have high polymorphism and can be used as suitable molecular markers in genetic studies.