Relationships between the endangered Pustertaler-Sprinzen and three related European cattle breeds as analysed with 20 microsatellite loci

We estimated the genetic relationships between the endangered German Puster taler-Sprinzen cattle breed and the Pinzgauer, Vosges and Simmental breeds - decided upon after consultation of the available historical literature. W ithin-breed diversity of the four breeds was also assessed. Twenty microsat ellite markers were amplified in 27-50 unrelated individuals from populatio ns of each breed. Within-breed variation was estimated from average heteroz ygosity values and mean number of alleles. Breed relationships were evaluat ed by genetic distance and a neighbour-joining tree was calculated from the se estimates. Bootstrap resampling of loci tested the robustness of the tre e topology obtained. A tree was also constructed from distance matrices usi ng individual animals as operational taxonomic units. From both the average heterozygosity values and mean number of alleles calculated, the Pustertal er breed appears to be no more genetically impoverished than the other bree ds analysed. The breed tree showed an 85% support for the Pustertaler-Pinzg auer grouping, and this result is echoed in the genetic distance values and allele-sharing individual tree.