Assessment of genetic variability among rabbit breeds by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR

Abstract

[EN] Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was employed to assess the genetic variation and phylogenetic relationship among three broiler rabbit breeds. Ten individuals from each rabbit breed viz. White Giant (WG), Soviet Chinchilla (SC) and Grey Giant (GG) was taken for the study. Initially, 40 RAPD primers were screened, of which six primers were found polymorphic and they were further utilized to assess the genetic variability among these breeds. The band sharing frequencies (BSF) were computed within and between breeds. The overall BSF value within breed was highest in WG (0.846±0.02) and GG (0.846±0.01), while lowest in SC (0.818±0.02). However, between breeds, BSF value was found higher in SC-GG (0.805± 0.01) followed by WG-SC (0.792±0.02) and WG-GG (0.790±0.02). Overall, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in BSF values within and between breeds. The BSF value indicated low genetic variability within the breed as compared to between breeds. The Nei's genetic distance (D) was found highest between WG-GG (D=0.1605) followed by WG-SC (D=0.1403) and SC-GG (D=0.1295). The phylogenetic relationship among breeds was analyzed and dendrogram revealed that SC and GG are more closer, while WG-GG are distant to each other. The study suggests that RAPD can be successfully utilized for detecting genetic variation among rabbit breeds.