EVALUATION OF GENETIC-VARIATION WITHIN AND BETWEEN DIFFERENT CHICKEN LINES BY DNA-FINGERPRINTING

A DNA fingerprinting technique was used to assess the extent of geneti c variation within and between 12 lines of chickens of different origi n. DNA fingerprints were obtained with the restriction endonucleases A lul and Hinfl and with the oligonucleotide probes (CA)(8), (CAC)(5), ( GGAT)(4), and (GACA)(4). Different methods that are based on band shar ing and band frequency were tested to estimate genetic variation withi n and between populations. The genetic variability was significantly d ifferent within the populations. It was highest in a commercial broile r line and lowest in a White Leghorn inbred line. All three measures o f genetic variation within populations provided results that were high ly correlated (r = 0.89-0.97). A lower degree of correspondence was ob served for the estimation of genetic variation between populations by three different methods. This is shown by differences of the phylogene tic trees and by coefficients of correlation between these measures ra nging from r = 0.51-0.96.