Study of Turkey Genetic Diversity Using RAPD Markers

Application of DNA marker technology in poultry as a tool for species and strain identification has progressed rapidly during the last decade. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers can be generated using short arbitrary primers to amplify genomic DNA, giving a genotype-specific pattern of bands. RAPD analysis should lead to the saturation of the genome without the requirement of previous genetic information. The purpose of this study was to evaluate genetic similarities and distances among four-colored phenotype of turkey population that kept in Turkey Research Station of Iran using RAPD technique. Blood samples were taken from 20 Black, 16 Golden, 24 Pied and 18 White local turkeys. Genomic DNA was extracted from 25μl blood samples. RAPD technique, using 15 primers, was applied to amplification of different fragments of genome. The genetic similarity between the groups varied from 0.94 to0.98 between phenotypic groups. The highest genetic distance (0.06) was determined between the White and Golden phenotypic groups and the lowest genetic distance (0.02) was obtained between White and Black groups. The results of this research showed that RAPD-PCR is an appropriate tool for evaluation of genetic variation in poultry and color is not a usful character to differentiate turkey genetic groups.