A COMPARATIVE GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF THE IRISH GREYHOUND POPULATION USING MULTILOCUS DNA-FINGERPRINTING, CANINE SINGLE-LOCUS MINISATELLITES AND CANINE MICROSATELLITES

Pairwise analysis of HinfI/33.6 DNA fingerprints from a total of one h undred and fifty-three Irish greyhounds of known pedigree were used to determine band-share estimates of unrelated, first-degree and second- degree relationships. Forty-eight unrelated Irish greyhounds were used to determine allele frequencies for three single-locus minisatellites , and following a preliminary screen, eight of the most polymorphic te tra-nucleotide microsatellites from a panel of 15. The results indicat ed that both band-share estimates by DNA fingerprinting and microsatel lite allele frequencies are highly effective in resolving parentage in this greyhound population, while single-locus minisatellites showed l imited polymorphism and could not be used alone for routine parentage testing in this breed. The present study also demonstrated that, to ob tain optimal resolution of parentage, sample sets of known pedigree st atus are required to determine the band-share distribution and/or micr osatellite allele frequencies.