Genetic diversity and relationship among Egyptian indigenous chicken strains using random amplification of polymorphic DNA.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the genetic diversity and relationships of 5 Egyptian indigenous strains (Fayoumi, Dokki-4, Golden Montazah, Silver Montazah, and El-Salam) using 10 random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. The gel analyses were performed using GelCompare II where the matrix was constructed followed by the cluster analysis for the matrices. Three hundred and two bands ranging between 610 and 2220 bp were amplified using 10 random primers. Appearances of unique bands with a mean of 4.4 bands per primer, and increase in band intensity with a mean of 30 bands per primer were also evident in the RAPD profiles Dendrogram based on Neighbour-Joining (NJ) method resulted in two subgroups. In this study, Simpson's diversity index was 0.82, and Shannon-Weiner index of diversity was 1.61. Therefore, it was confirmed through the present study that the RAPD is a valuable tool to evaluate genetic diversity of chicken.