Abstract:
The genetic diversity of Pakistani
dromedary camels is poorly documented. The
present study evaluated the genetic variations
of two well-known Pakistani camel breeds,
Mareecha and Barela, that are well-adapted to
the Cholistan desert climate. Camel can serve
as a benefcial participant in the food supply
chain by providing milk, meat and other
food products for the livelihood of pastoral
peoples. To explore a new world of resources,
greater atention to needed to create standard
procedures to genetically characterize, classify
and identify camel breeds in the country.
For this purpose, 66 unrelated animals of the
Mareecha (n=35) and Barela (n=31) breeds
were genotyped using a set of 12 labelled
microsatellite loci. DNA fragment sizes were
determined in an ABI 3130 Genetic Analyzer.
All microsatellite markers were successfully
amplifed and exhibited a polymorphic
nature, with an average Polymorphic
Information Content (PIC) of 0.72 and 0.70 in
Mareecha and Barela, respectively. A total of
107 alleles with an average of 8.91 alleles per
locus were identifed by these markers in both
breeds. CMS15 was highly polymorphic with
13 alleles, while VOLP-032 was the lowest
with two loci. The F
it and Fis values were low
but high population differentiation (17%) was
observed in both breeds, due to the migrations
of pastoral people to different remote areas
during climate fluctuations.
