Assessment of 17 microsatellite loci for their use in parentage verification and individual identification in the Balkan donkey breed

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess a panel of 17 microsatellites for parentage verification and individual identification in the endangered Balkan donkey breed. Allele frequencies for 17 microsatellite loci (AHT4, AHT5, ASB2, ASB17, ASB23, CA425, HTG4, HTG6, HTG7, HTG10, HMS1, HMS2, HMS3, HMS6, HMS7, LEX3 and VHL20) were determined in a 77 unrelated Balkan donkeys. Three loci (ASB2, HMS1 and ASB17) proved to be unsuitable and had been excluded from the investigation. Analysis of the remaining 14 loci revealed varied levels of polymorphism (three to 12 alleles), while the total number of observed alleles was 118 with an average of 8.42 per locus. Average values of observed heterozygosity and polymorphic information content (PIC) were 0.712 and 0.650, respectively. Twelve out of 14 microsatellite markers were highly informative with PIC values higher than 0.5. Only four loci were in HWE (HMS2, HMS6, HMS7 and HTG6). The obtained value of combined power of exclusion 0.9999) confirms usefulness of this microsatellite panel for parentage verification, while the value of combined power of discrimination of 0.9941 clearly approves the reliability of the panel for individual identification in Balkan donkeys.