Fingerprinting and genetic diversity of American bison (Bison bison), aurochs (Bison bonasus), and gray Ukrainian cattle (Bos taurus)

To describe genetic variability and population diversity in domesticated po pulations of American bison (Bison bison), aurochs (Bison, bonasus), and gr ay Ukrainian cattle (Bos taurus) different variants of DNA fingerprinting t echnique (utilizing the M13 phage DNA, (TTAGGG)(4) synthetic oligonucleotid e, and three arbitrary primers as hybridization probes) were used. Several parameters characterizing polymorphism and genetic diversity levels in each population (species) were evaluated on the basis of the profiles obtained. Dendrograms of genetic similarities between individual animals were constr ucted. Genetic variability of minisatellite and telomeric markers observed in the gray Ukrainian cattle flock was higher than that in aurochs and biso ns. Comparison of the intrapopulation similarity (S) and gene diversity (H) indices along with the analysis of dusters in the dendrograms showed that the relatedness between the aurochs individuals was much higher than betwee n the individual animals in the bison and gray Ukrainian cattle flocks. Fur thermore, the gray Ukrainian cattle flock was represented by more distant r elatives than the bison hock. It is suggested that reduced genetic variabil ity and the appearance of deviant genotype observed in the two bison lines under selection, resulted from close inbreeding and the founder effect. The diagnostic value and efficacy of utilization of different molecular marker s for estimation of genetic diversity and relatedness in domesticated anima l populations is discussed.