POLYMORPHIC MICROSATELLITE DNA MARKERS IN THE RABBIT (ORYCTOLAGUS-CUNICULUS)

By searching the EMBL nucleotide database a total of 157 rabbit nuclea r gene microsatellites were obtained (VAN LITH and VAN ZUTPHEN, Animal Genetics 27, 387-395, 1996). Thirteen of these were analysed by PCR t o examine the degree of polymorphism of the amplified fragments in rab bits from different breeds. The 13 pairs of primers resulted in polymo rphic products with an average of four alleles per microsatellite sequ ence (ranging between 2-11). There Was a positive relationship between the longest repeat unit number in the nucleotide sequence and the num ber of alleles detected. The results obtained so far justify the concl usion that rabbit microsatellites extracted from the EMBL nucleotide s equence database are sufficiently polymorphic to be useful as Type I m arkers in rabbit genetic studies.