Genetic Diversity of Indigenous Chicken (Gallus Gallus domesticus) from Ecozones of Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Genetic diversity of two chicken ecotypes from Ismailia-Egypt (ISM) and Taif- Saudi Arabia (TA) was evaluated using 39 microsatellites. DNA was extracted from blood of 25 chickens/ecotype. The number of alleles was 157 and 138, the number of alleles/locus averaged 4.2 ± 2.2 and 3.6 ± 1.6, and the highest number of private alleles was 9 and 5 for ISM and TA, respectively. Percentage of shared alleles between the two ecotypes was 45%. This panel of markers is reasonably informative as the mean polymorphic information content for ISM and TA was 0.47 ± 0.21, and 0.41 ± 0.2. Similar average of observed heterozygosity was attained for both ecotypes. Conversely, averages of expected heterozygosity differed between two ecotypes, 0.52 ± 0.23 vs. 0.45 ± 0.21 for ISM and TA. 8 and 12 loci have significantly deviated from HWE of ISM and TA. Estimate of genetic distance was 0.2 and FST index was 0.29. Results showed only 6% of genetic diversity is shared between these two ecotypes.