Genetic diversity in five Czech native horse breeds assessed using microsatellite markers

Received: 2018-05-07 | Accepted: 2018-05-14 | Available online: 2018-11-26https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2018.21.04.190-193The aim of the present study was to analyse the genetic diversity of the endangered horse breeds kept in the Czech Republic. A set of 13 microsatellites was used for genotyping 349 Silesian Norikers, 397 Norikers, 552 Czech-Moravian Belgian horses, 271 Old Kladrubers (175 greys, 95 blacks) and 241 Hucul horses. The proportion of obtained heterozygosity indicates no major loss of genetic diversity within analyzed breeds. The Wright’s FST and genetic distances indicated genetic segregation of both colour varieties of the Old Kladruber breed and small genetic distances between draft horse breeds. Moreover, the membership probability outputs showed that the frequencies of alleles varied across the three main regions. First region is represented by draft horse breeds, second region is represented by Old Kladruber horse and the last is represented by Hucul breed. The study provides data and information utilizable in the management of conservation programs in order to reduce inbreeding and to minimize loss of genetic variability.Keywords: admixture, endangered breeds, horse, loss of genetic diversityReferencesDelgado J.F., De Andres N., Valera M., Gutierrez J.P., Cervantes I. (2014) Assessment of population structure depending on breeding objectives in Spanish Arabian horse by genealogical and molecular information. Livestock Science, 168, 9–16. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2014.07.012Jombart T., Ahmed I. (2011) adegenet 1.3-1: new tools for the analysis of genome-wide SNP data. Bioinformatics, 27, 3070–3071. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btr521 Jombart T., Collins C. (2015): A tutorial for diskriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) using adegenet 2.0.0. MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling. [Online] London: Imperial College London. Available at: http://adegenet.rforge. r-project.org/files/tutorial-dapc.pdf [accessed 20 November 2017].Kasarda R., Vostry L., Moravcikova N., Vostra-Vydrova H., Dovc P., Kadlecik O. (2016) Detailed insight into genetic diversity of the Old Kladruber horse substructure in comparison to the Lipizzan breed. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A – Animal Science, 66, 67–74. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09064702.2016.1249400Peakall, R. and Smouse P.E. (2012) GenAlEx 6.5: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for taching and research-an update. Bioinformatics 28, 2537-2539. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts460Szwaczkowski T., Gregula-Kania M., Stachurska A., Borowska A., Jaworski Z., Gruszecki T.M. (2016) Interand intra-genetic diversity in the Polish Konik horse: implications for the conservation program. Canadian Journal of Animal Science, 96 (4), 570–580. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjas-2015-017