Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Cattle Via Microsatellite Typing

Recent awareness of the value of genetic resources has encouraged studies on genetic diversity not only at the population level but also at the molecular level in different breeds. Genetic characterization of native breeds is a first step in their conservation. Knowledge of genetic variation within and among extant breeds is required to meet future agricultural demands. Molecular typing methods provide a powerful and reproducible approach to estimating genetic relatedness within and among animal lines based on DNA variation. Microsatellites are regions of di, tri or tetra nucleotides that can be repeated upto 100 times. Microsatellite markers are widely used for such purposes because they are highly polymorphic, easy to analyze, and almost evenly distributed throughout the genome.