ANALYSIS OF GENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN 10 CATTLE BREEDS WITH 17 MICROSATELLITES

To guide genetic conservation programmes with objective criteria, gene ral genetic variability has to be taken into account. This study was c onducted to determine the genetic variation between 10 cattle breeds b y using 17 microsatellite loci and 13 biochemical markers (11 blood gr oups, the transferrin and beta-casein loci). Microsatellite loci were amplified in 31-50 unrelated individuals from 10 cattle breeds: Charol ais, Limousin, Breton Black Pied, Parthenais, Montbeliard, Vosgien, Ma ine-Anjou, Normande, Jersey and Holstein. Neighbor-joining trees were calculated from genetic distance estimates. The robustness of tree top ology was obtained by bootstrap resampling of loci. A total of 210 all eles of the 17 microsatellites were detected in this study and average heterozygosities ranged from 0.53 in the Jersey breed to 0.66 in the Parthenais breed. In general, low bootstrap values were obtained: with the 17 microsatellites, the highest bootstrap values concerned the Ho lstein/Maine-Anjou grouping with an occurrence of 74%; with the bioche mical markers, this node had an occurrence of 79% and the Charolais/Li mousin grouping appeared with an occurrence of 74%; when microsatellit es and biochemical polymorphism were analysed together, the occurrence of the Holstein/Maine-Anjou grouping was 90% and that of the Charolai s/Limousin grouping was 42%. These results suggest that 30 microsatell ites, a number currently considered as sufficient to distinguish close ly related breeds is, in fact, probably insufficient.