Discrimination of the commercial Korean native chicken population using microsatellite markers.
BACKGROUND
Korean native chicken (KNC) is a well-known breed due to its superior meat taste. This breed, however, owing to a low growth rate, has a high market price. In order to overcome this disadvantage, the National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) in Korea developed a commercial KNC breed, named Woorimatdag version 2 (WM2), an upgraded version of the Woorimatdag (WM1) breed and the WM2 was created by crossing the KNC with meat type breeds. This study aims to discriminate between WM2 and other chicken breeds using microsatellite (MS) markers.


METHODS
A total of 302 individuals from eight Korean chicken populations were examined. The genetic diversity and population structure analysis were investigated using Cervus, API-CALC, STRUCTURE, PowerMarker programs.


RESULTS
Based on heterozygosity and polymorphic information content (PIC) values, 30 MS markers were initially selected from 150 markers. The identified average number of alleles (Na), expected heterozygosity, and PIC values for the WM2 samples were 7.17, 0.741, and 0.682, respectively. Additionally, the paternity of individuals was assigned with a success rate of greater than 99% using 12 markers, the best minimum number of markers. The 12 selected markers contained heterozygosity and PIC values above 0.7 and probability of identity values around zero. Using these markers, the determined probability of identity (PI), PI half-sibs , and PI sibs values were 3.23E-33, 5.03E-22, and 8.61E-08, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
WM2 is well differentiated with respect to other chicken breeds based on estimated genetic distances. The results presented here will contribute to the identification of commercial WM2 chicken in the market.
Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764 Republic of Korea.
Nu Ri
NR
Choi
Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764 Republic of Korea.
Dong Won
DW
Seo
Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764 Republic of Korea ; INRA-Tunisie, Laboratoire des Productions Animales et Fourragères, Rue Hédi Karray, 2049 Ariana Tunisia.
Slim Ben
SB
Jemaa
Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764 Republic of Korea.
Hasina
H
Sultana
Poultry Science Division, National Institute of Animal Science, RDA, Cheonan, 331-801 Republic of Korea.
Kang Nyeong
KN
Heo
Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Food and Bioconvergence, and Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-921 Republic of Korea.
Cheorun
C
Jo
Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764 Republic of Korea.
Jun Heon
JH
Lee
Discrimination; Diversity; Korean native chicken; Microsatellite; Woorimatdag