Genetic closeness of Zanskari and Spiti ponies of India inferred through microsatellite markers

The Zanskari and Spiti ponies were characterized for genetic variation using a set of 25 equine microsatellite markers. The DNA was isolated from the 42 blood samples of Zanskari and 32 blood samples of Spiti ponies collected from their respective breeding tracts. The DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction at the studied microsatellite loci and amplified product was resolved for alleles by denaturing urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The allelic frequency data so obtained was statistically analyzed using POPGENE computer program. The PCR product size-range varied from 84 to 102 at locus HTG6 to 238 to 244 at locus UCDEQ425. The observed number of alleles ranged from four to nine with a mean (± standard deviation) of 5.80 ± 1.32 alleles per locus in Zanskari and 5.40 ± 1.04 alleles per locus in Spiti ponies. The mean observed heterozygosity was found to be 0.61 ± 0.06 and 0.56 ± 0.09 for Zanskari and Spiti ponies, respectively. The Nei's standard and unbiased genetic distance were found to be 0.11 and 0.09, respectively, indicating close genetic relatedness of Zanskari and Spiti ponies.