Brief communication. Genetic variation detected by microsatellites in five Spanish dog breeds

• Published in: The Journal of heredity 1999-11, Vol.90 (6), p.654-656
• Main Authors: Morera, L, Barba, CJ, Garrido, JJ, Barbancho, M, de Andrés, DF
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0022-1503; 1465-7333
• DOI: 10.1093/jhered/90.6.654

Estimates of genetic variation detected by microsatellite loci were obtained at the intra- and interbreeds levels for five Spanish dog breeds: Alano, Galgo, Podenco Andaluz, Perro de agua, and Maneto. Four microsatellites described in the literature were used. All were polymorphic in the five breeds. Average heterozygosities within breeds ranged from 0.70 to 0.77 and the mean number of alleles per breed ranged from five to seven. Wright's F statistics were calculated to analyze the differences between observed and expected heterozygosities. Our results showed an average deficit of heterozygotes at all loci for each breed (Fis=0.085±0.034). The genetic differentiation among breeds was estimated as FST=0.108±0.015. Both estimates were significant at the 99% level. FST was also used to obtain genetic distances between different breeds. Our estimates are of similar magnitude to those reported in Spanish dog breeds using allozyme markers. The lowest distance was obtained for the Galgo-Podenco Andaluz pair. The greatest distances were obtained between Alano and the other breeds. This can be due, at least in part, to a bottleneck effect caused by the drastic reduction in population size for this breed at the end of the last century.