Authors: Vega-Pla, J. L.¹; Calderón, J.²; Rodríguez-Gallardo, P. P.¹; Martinez, A. M.³; Rico, C.²

Source: Animal Genetics, Volume 37, Number 6, December 2006 , pp. 571-578(8)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Summary

In the 1980s, a conservation programme involving a feral horse population, the Retuertas horses from the Guadalquivir marshes, was started in the Doñana National Park. The analysis of an extensive genetic survey of this population, which now numbers 100 animals, and 10 additional European and North African breeds using DNA polymorphisms from 22 microsatellites is presented. Highly significant fixation indexes were obtained for all pairwise comparisons between the Retuertas population and other breeds. A population neighbour-joining breed phenogram was built using different distance measures, but the Retuertas population failed to cluster with either of the two major clades of European and North African breeds, highlighting its uniqueness. In fact, the Retuertas population was positioned at the base of the trees, which were rooted using donkey samples. Furthermore, assignment tests and the individual Q-matrices obtained with thestructureprogramme isolated the Retuertas breed from the other breeds with only four K groups. Interestingly, some local semi-feral horses, known as Marismeño, also currently living in the Guadalquivir marshes, have some microsatellite genotypes that fall well within the Retuertas cluster. This raises the possibility of incorporating horses from the Marismeño population in a future conservation programme.

Keywords: biochemical polymorphisms; correspondence analysis; genetic distance; horse; microsatellite; phylogeny

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2052.2006.01533.x

Affiliations: 1: Laboratorio de Genética Molecular, Servicio de Cría Caballar y Remonta, Apartado Oficial Sucursal 2, 14071 Córdoba, Spain 2: Estación Biológica de Doñana, Av. María Luisa s/n, Pabellón del Perú, 41013 Sevilla, Spain 3: Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Córdoba, Edificio Gregor Mendel, Campus de Rabanales s/n, 14071 Córdoba, Spain

Publication date: 2006-12-01

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