Population study and validation of paternity testing for thoroughbred horses by 15 microsatellite loci

Microsatellite 15 TKY System was characterized for parentage verification o f horse registry. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System was constructed by using 15 microsatellites, TKY279, TKY287, TKY294, TKY297, TKY301, TKY312, TKY321 , TKY325, TKY333, TKY337, TKY341, TKY343, TKY344, TKY374, and TKY394, to pr ovide stringent PCR-based microsatellite typing specifically optimized for multicolor fluorescence detection. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System showed good resolutions for 250 unrelated Thoroughbred horses, and the probability of exclusion (PE) at each microsatellite ranged from 0.437 to 0.621, resul ting in a total PE value of 99.998% for Thoroughbred horses. These results indicated that the Microsatellite 15 TKY System is useful for paternity tes ting of Thoroughbred horses. A paternity testing case for a Thoroughbred ho rse family, in which candidate sires had close relations, was analyzed usin g the Microsatellite 15 TKY System. In this case, the Microsatellite 15 TKY System excluded paternity of a false sire. We concluded that the Microsate llite 15 TKY System can give sufficient and reliable information for patern ity, testing.