Assessment of Genetic Variability in Murrah and Surti Buffaloes using Microsatellite Markers

The present study illustrates the genetic diversity of Surti buffaloes using a total of 10 microsatellite markers selected from the list suggested by FAO (ISAG).

All the 10 microsatellites were successfully amplified by polymerase chain reaction and observed number of alleles ranged from 6 to 12 with a total of 101 alleles across the 10 loci.

The overall mean observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity values were 0.617 and 0.772 and ranged from 0.367 to 0.767 and 0.734 to 0.840 respectively. All the 10 primers used in the present study were found to be polymorphic and highly informative with the mean PIC value 0.69 in Murrah, 0.722 found in Surti buffalo. The estimate of heterozygote deficiency varied from 0.039 to 0.509 with a mean positive value of 0.203±0.057, suggesting a deficit of heterozygotes in studied breeds. The sufficiently high mean values of observed number of alleles, observed heterozygosity and PIC for various microsatellites are important to examine the genetic variability of Murrah and Surti buffaloes population in present scenario for creating useful conservation strategies as well as disease diagnose.