Genotypic characterization of ten microsatellite loci in two Brazilian free range (Caipira) chicken lines

This study aimed to investigate the genetic variability of two Brazilian free range (Caipira) chickens lines using microsatellites analysis of ten loci. It was collected a total of 99 blood samples, which 49 were from Paraiso Pedres (PP) and 50 were from Rubro Negra (RN) lines. The amplification of the DNA fragments was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the genotyping was conduct using ABI 3130 sequencer. The allele number variation was among 3 (LEI0254) to 32 (LEI0212) in the PP line, and 4 (LEI0254) to 31 (LEI0212) in the RN line. The allelic average per locus was 13.3 and 13.1 in the PP and RN lines, respectively. The average observed and the expected heterozygosity were 0.650 and 0.820 in the PP line, and 0.671 and 0.804 in the RN line. All of the analyzed loci were informative (PIC>0.5). These results indicate that these free-range animals have a high genetic variability, at least for the majority of the analyzed loci, and this genetic variation is higher than the commercial chickens and similar for the no-commercial birds.