Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Chokla Sheep Breed of Rajasthan Using Microsatellite Markers

Genetic diversity of Chokla sheep breed was investigated using 18 microsatellite markers suggested by FAO. Total of 150 alleles were detected across 18 microsatellite loci. The highly polymorphic locus was OarFCB48 with 13 alleles and the lowest number of allele was found in FCB128. All the loci were found highly polymorphic with 94% polymorphism in studied population, where mean polymorphic information content value was found 0.751, indicating utility of these markers for genome mapping as well as population assignment. Various diversity estimates, mean observed heterozygosity (0.576), mean number of alleles (8.3), effective number of alleles (5.2) and gene diversity (0.783) showed significant within-breed diversity in studied population. However, positive Fis value (0.256) indicated heterozygote deficiency in investigated sheep population. This study is important to understand the genetic diversity of studied population in present scenario for adjudication of demanded breeding programms as well as for creating useful conservation strategies.