Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 4.57

USE OF AFLP MARKERS TO STUDY GENETIC VARIABILITY IN WATER FOWL (ANAS PLATYRHYNCOS L.)

MILANI A., SAVARESE M.C., MARCHITELLI C.

Dipartimento di Produzioni Animali, Facoltà di Agraria, Università della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

molecular marker, AFLP, polymorphism, genetic variability

Molecular markers are a useful tool to obtain information directly at the DNA level in biodiversity studies. Microsatellites and, more recently, the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique have been used to investigate the level of divergence and genetic variability within and between animal populations.

AFLP are usually detected as the presence or absence of labelled fragments and may be due to polymorphisms in restriction sites, polymorphisms in the selective nucleotide priming site or to insertion/deletion within the amplified fragment.

We used of AFLP technique in the estimation of genetic similarity of water fowl populations (Anas platyrhynchos L.) using a multicolour fluorescent detection system. Blood samples from a wild and a reared bird population were collected in the Grosseto province (Italy). The aim was to check if reared water fowls were suitable to be employed for restocking in the wild.

AFLP markers were generated by EcoRI/TaqI digestion and 4 primer combinations were analysed on 87 individuals The EcoRI primer was fluorochrome-labelled, allowing the detection of 153 polymorphic bands using a Licor 4200 sequencer. The data have been analysed with a principal component analysis. Our results show that a fair variability still exists within the groups and this result can be used for breeding and conservation strategies.