56/21 | General Article | Animal Genetics and Breeding

Evaluation of Grey Type Donkeys of Braj Region of Uttar Pradesh for Genetic Bottlenecks Using Microsatellite Markers

ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, P.O. Box – 129, Karnal – 132001 (Haryana) India

Abstract

Since, the population of grey type donkeys in Braj region of Uttar Pradesh, India have reduced drastically in the recent times, they were evaluated for any recent genetic bottlenecks using allelic frequency data obtained at eleven microsatellite loci with sign test, standardized differences test and Wilcoxan sign-rank test assuming infinite allele model (IAM), step-wise mutation model (SMM) and two-phased mutation model (TPM). The results of majority of the tests especially under SMM and TPM pointed towards the absence of any recent genetic bottlenecks. The normal ‘L’ shaped distribution of the allelic frequency also indicated the absence of any recent genetic bottleneck in these grey type donkeys of Braj region. Although, the open mating practice may have contributed to the absence of any genetic bottleneck in these donkeys. However, the population that have recently suffered a severe reduction in size are especially vulnerable to risk of extinction due to increased rate of inbreeding, loss of genetic variation and fixation of mildly deleterious alleles. Immediate attention and conservation measures are required to arrest the further reduction in this population.

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