Genetic Diversity Of Conservation Populations Of4Anhui Indigenous Chicken Breeds And Clustering Effects Of3Genes Related To Egg Production Traits

Indigeneous chicken breeds resource is the basis of chicken breeding and production.Evaluation of genetic diversity of indigeneous breeds is the premise of the protection ofbreeds. The genetic diversity based upon the microsatellite markers and mitochondrialnucleotide variations was analyzed in four protection populations of Anhui indigeneousbreeds including Huainan chicken, Huaibei chicken, Wannan chicken, and Wuhua chicken.Sixty blood samples,12males and48females, were collected in each breed, and the DNAwere extracted individually. Twenty polymorphic and specific microsatellite markers wereused in PAGE assay. Results showed that, in these breeds,17out20microsatellite markerswere highly polymorphic, and6.1effective alleles were identified on LET0094locus.Wannan chicken had the highest average heterozygosity (0.593) and the Huainan chickenthe lowest (0.413); twenty percent of the genetic variation derived from breeds.Mitochondrial nucleotide variations showed that the haplotype diversity among four breedswas0.941to1.000. Wannan chicken had the richest haplotype diversity with21variationsites. Clustering analysis by genetic distance indicated that the nearest was Wuhua andhuainan Chicken (0.261), while the farthest the Huainan and Huaibei Chicken (0.714).Identification of alleles or haplotypes related to important traits is the basis ofmolecular breeding. The genetic effects of SNPs on egg production traits were studied inhigh egg production line of huainan chicken, providing the reference to the utilization ofthe breed. Two hundred and twenty four hens of the line were ramdomly selected and eggproduction was recorded individually. PCR-SSCP and RFLP were used to genotype thethree loci. The results showed that the genotypic frequencies of ESRα AA/Aa/aa were0.42/0.46/0.12, and allelic frequencies of A/a were0.65/0.35. The egg number at300d ofage of genotype aa were higher than AA by5.6%(P<0.05). The genotypic frequencies ofNPY BB/Bb/bb were0.47/0.40/0.13, and allelic frequencies of B/b were0.67/0.33. Thegenotypic frequencies of IGF-I CC/Cc/cc were0.43/0.46/0.11, and allelic frequencies ofC/c were0.66/0.34. The SNPs of NPY and IGF-I did not influence (P>0.05) the eggnumber at300d in Huainan chicken. The results of2-SNP clustering showed thatESRα-NPY haplotype aaBb had the highest egg production, but the differences was notsignificant (P>0.05); the egg number at300d of ESRα-IGF-I haplotype aaCc was thehighest (P<0.05); the egg number at300d of NPY-IGF-I haplotype BbCc was the highest(P<0.05). Three-SNP clustering showed that haplotype AabbCc and AABBCc shared the relatively higher egg production, while the AABBCC the lower. In conlusion, haplotypeAABBCc had high egg production at300d (122.55±2.14) with relatively high genotypicfrequency (0.1), and therefore, it could be used as a genetic marker in MAS for the trait ofegg production.