Measurement of genetic variation within and between Japanese quail lines using DNA fingerprinting

The objective of the present experiment was to study genetic variation with in and among well-defined Japanese quail lines by DNA fingerprinting. The J apanese quail lines included a randombred control line (R1) and lines devel oped from R1 by divergent selection over 30 generations for 4-wk BW (HW, LW ) and total plasma phosphorus (TPP) (HP, LP), a measure of yolk precursor i n the blood. In addition, two sublines (HW-HP, HW-LP) of HW, developed in t he ninth generation, were included in the analysis. Males of the sublines w ere selected for increased 4-wk BW whereas females were selected for increa sed (HW-HP) or decreased (HW-LP) TPP. Sixteen individual DNA samples per li ne were digested with HaeIII restriction enzyme and hybridized with jeffrey s' 33.6 probe. The DNA fingerprints were analyzed with computer programs de signed to measure band sharing (BS). Within lines, BS ranged from 0.384 to 0.525. The BS within the R1 line was less than that of all selected Lines, except for the HP and LP lines, indicating that, in general, selection had. increased genetic homogeneity within the selected lines. Between lines, BS was less than within lines and the R1 line had the highest average level o f BS (0.278) with the other lines. The BS between lines for the selected li nes ranged from 0.230 Ttp 0.308 with an average of 0.265. In the comparison of the R1 line with the selected lines, it appeared that selection for inc reased TPP or decreased BW may have influenced BS levels. The relationships of the HW line with its sublines (HW-HP and HW-LP) were not accurately pre dicted by the DNA fingerprinting technique used. All lines were separated, as indicated by the genetic distance between lines.