title: Genetic diversity and population structure of three Indian horse breeds.
abstract: The genetic relationships of three Indian horse breeds-Marwari, Spiti, and Kathiawari were studied by genotyping 96 individuals with 20 polymorphic microsatellite markers. A total of 157 alleles were detected across 20 polymorphic loci. The Marwari population showed the highest allelic diversity (A = 5.7 and Ar = 5.14), followed by Spiti (A = 4.9 and Ar = 4.74) and Kathiawari (A = 4.1 and Ar = 3.82). The gene diversity was highest in the Spiti population (He = 0.67), followed by Marwari (He = 0.66) and Kathiawari (He = 0.59). Within population inbreeding estimates (f) in Marwari, Spiti and Kathiawari breeds were 0.18, 0.08, and 0.07, respectively, suggesting high level of inbreeding in these breeds. Analysis of bottleneck revealed evidence of recent bottleneck in Spiti and Kathiawari populations. Pair-wise Fst analysis, AMOVA and assignment tests demonstrated high genetic differentiation and low gene flow between populations. The information about genetic diversity and population structure will be useful for the future development of effective breeding management in order to preserve these Indian horse breeds.
authors.affiliation: National Research Centre on Equines, Sirsa Road, Hisar, 125 001 Haryana, India. mamtachauhan999@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mamta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chauhan
authors.forename: Ashok Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dhillon
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006736:Horses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D007194:India; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers