Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Arabian Horse Populations Using Microsatellite Markers

Abstract

Understanding the genetic diversity and the relationships among the show Arabian horse populations is a current issue for breeders and professionals. This study aimed to define the relationship among the Desert breed, the Straight Egyptian, and the Polish Arabian populations by considering the historical background of their origin and to verify their genetic diversity. All selected samples were related to Arabian show activities. One hundred forty four hair samples were collected from horses at stud farms having notoriety in the breeding of Arabians from different geographic regions. A set of 17 microsatellites markers for parentage control were used for genotyping. Genetic diversity among and between these populations were evaluated using several statistical methods. All the microsatellites were informative and the marker set analyzed provided 145 alleles. The average number of alleles per locus was 6.52, 6.35, and 7 for the Desert breed, Straight Egyptian, and Polish Arabian, respectively. The high genetic diversity observed within the three populations (0.63-0.71) was associated with a high number of effective alleles. Desert breed and Polish Arabian populations appeared the closest, whereas the Egyptian population was more distant. The significant positive inbreeding coefficient F_IS found in Desert breed, Straight Egyptian, and Polish Arabian horses (0.09, 0.14, and 0.11, respectively) confirmed the deficit of heterozygosity observed in these populations. These results suggested that the three populations have high levels of gene flow or share the same origin and have a recent divergence. This study may highlight the risk of the loss of gene diversity in these populations and help to implement appropriate breeding programs to preserve genetic diversity.

Keywords: Arabian horses; Desert breed; Genetic diversity; Polish Arabian; Straight Egyptian.