[Genetic diversity in Tibetan chicken].

Abstract

Morphological traits and living habit of Tibetan chicken, which is an aboriginal chicken breed on plateau with its own characteristic populational genetic features, are in great common with the Red Jungle Fowl, the assumed ancestry of domestic chicken. To fully exploit this chicken resource, Multiplex PCR with semi-automated polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) using fluorescently labeled microsatellite primers was used to detect the polymorphism at 20 microsatellite loci. At the same time, we randomly test the individual morphology and performance. It showed that numbers of polymorphic alleles were 4 approximately 10, with mean value 7.25 per locus. Polymorphism Information Content (C(PI)) and Heterozygosity (H) had mean values 0.67 and 0.74, respectively. Macrochromosomes had relatively higher polymorphism than microchromosomes(P > 0.05). In all, high polymorphisms at microsatellite loci related to the uneven production performance and morphological discrepancy of population genetic characteristics in Tibetan chicken.