RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA IN CATTLE AND SHEEP - APPLICATION FOR DETECTING GENETIC-VARIATION

The present study investigated the use of the random amplified polymor phic DNA (RAPD) method to detect genetic variation in cattle and sheep . The animals studied consisted of samples from five Finnish cattle br eeds: native Eastern (18 animals), Northern (24), Western Finncattle ( 24), Finnish Ayrshire (24), and Finnish Friesian (18); as well as a wh ite (6 animals) and a grey (9) colour type of Finnsheep. The cattle an d sheep populations were analysed with 11 and 13 RAPD primers demonstr ating the most repeatable amplification pattern. Two out of ten RAPD f ragments tested by cross hybridization showed homology between the two species. The RAPD method did not prove efficient for finding new poly morphisms in either species, because we found only three polymorphic R APD markers for cattle and seven markers for sheep with different alle le frequencies between the breeds. Although there is a greater presenc e of polymorphic RAPD markers in sheep, according to the similarity in dices the sheep populations showed a higher degree of homogeneity than the cattle breeds. However, the interbreed and intrabreed similarity indices for cattle did not suggest any significant differentiation of the Finnish breeds, contrary to earlier results based on blood group a nd protein polymorphism.