Investigation of Genetic Variations using Microsatellite Markers in Colored Horses in Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine the genetic variation of Colored horses by using microsatellite markers. In the study, samples from a total of 28 Colored horse were genotyped using 17 microsatellite markers, 12 of them are recommended by the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG) and the other 5 loci included by the StockMarks Genotyping Kit. A total of 129 different alleles were identified and the average number of alleles was 7.588.The heterozygosity value (Ho) was 0.286 as the lowest (LEX3) and 0.929 (HTG10) as the highest among the markers; the expected lowest heterozygosity value (He) was determined as 0.607 (HTG4) and the highest one was 0.876 (VHL20). The mean Ho and He values were calculated as 0.729 and 0.771, respectively. On a population basis, the mean FIS and FIT values were 0.047. The mean PIC value was 0.741. In the phylogenetic tree formed by the neighbour joining tree (NJT), it was determined that the horses were generally categorized into 3 groups. Although statistically significant results (P = 0.01008) were found in the studies investigating whether the population of Colored horses had the risk of extinction or not, it was determined that the data showed normal L distribution indicating no risk of recent extinction. It was determined that the Colored horses had a genetically important potential.