Resumen Considerando la importancia de mantener la diversidad genética en los animales nativos, este estudio se realizó para analizar la diversidad genética en poblaciones de dromedarios en el norte de la provincia de Kerman, Irán, utilizando ocho marcadores microsatélites autosómicos. Se recolectaron 81 muestras de sangre de cinco poblaciones diferentes y se extrajo el ADN. El número de alelos más alto y más bajo y los alelos efectivos se mostraron en YWLL08 (21 y 4) y VOLP32 (14,97 y 3,11), respectivamente. La heterocigosidad esperada varió de 0,778 en la población de Sahra-e Jahad a 0,847 en la población de Nogh. La prueba de equilibrio de Hardy- Weinberg mostró desviaciones significativas en la mayoría de los loci. El valor medio de FST multilocus (0,057) sugirió que la diferenciación es moderada entre poblaciones. De la diversidad genética total, solo el 6% se debió a diferenciación entre poblaciones, mientras que el 94% restante correspondió a diferencias entre individuos dentro de cada población. Los resultados del estudio actual indicaron que las poblaciones de Camelus dromedarius en el norte de la provincia de Kerman tienen una variación genética relativamente alta y los datos podrían ser útiles para diseñar las estrategias de reproducción y conservación. El grado de variabilidad demostrado implica que las poblaciones estudiadas son ricos reservorios de diversidad genética que deben ser preservados. Una dirección futura de nuestro estudio puede ser estudiar todas las poblaciones de Camelus dromedarius iraníes para evaluar mejor el nivel de endogamia y establecer las estrategias de conservación adecuadas destinadas a evitar pérdidas de diversidad genética.

Abstract Considering the importance of maintaining the genetic diversity in native animals, this study conducted to analyse genetic diversity in dromedary populations in the north of Kerman province, Iran, using eight autosomal microsatellite markers. Eighty-one blood samples were collected from five different populations and DNA was extracted. The highest and the lowest alíele number and effective alíeles were shown in YWLL08 (21 and 4) and VOLP32 (14.97 and 3.11), respectively. The expected heterozygosity varied from 0.778 in Sahra-e Jahad population to 0.847 in Nogh population. The test for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium showed significant deviations in most loci. The mean multilocus Fst value (0.057) suggested that differentiation is modérate between populations. From total genetic diversity, only 6% were due to differentiation among populations, while the remaining 94% corresponded to differences among individuáis within each population. The results of the current study indicated that the Camelus dromedarius populations in the north of Kerman province have a relativity high genetic variation and the data could be useful for designing the breeding strategies and conservation. The degree of variability demonstrated implies that studied populations are rich reservoirs of genetic diversity that must be preserved. A future direction to our study can be studying all of the Iranian Camelus dromedarius populations to better evaluate the level of inbreeding and establish the appropriate conservation strategies aimed to avoid losses of genetic diversity.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study was to determine polymorphism of LCORL gene in horse breeds and its association with body size. PCR-RFLP technique was performed using AluI for genotyping of 306 horses. Results showed that C is the rare allele in Iranian Breeds, because these horses have been used since ancient times as a courier and for war and archery, hence selection has done to benefit of spiky horses with medium body that need less food and are tireless. While, for foreign breeds; frequency of C allele was high that can be concluded these breeds used in fields, forests, and mines. A UPGMA dendrogram based on the Nei's standard genetic distance among studied breeds showed separate clusters for Iranian native and exotic breeds. Statistical association analysis of three observed genotypes with body size showed that there is an association between this polymorphism and body size criteria (p < 0.01). Overall, it can be concluded that studied mutation in LCORL gene can be used as candidate marker for improving body weight in horse.

ABSTRACT. The present study aimed to apply artificial neural networks to predict the breeding values of body weight in 6-month age of Kermani sheep. For this purpose, records of 867 lambs including lamb sex, dam age, birth weight, weaning weight, age at 3-month (3 months old), age at 6-month (6 months old) and body weight at 3 months of age were used. Firstly, genetic parameters of the animals were estimated using ASReml software. The data was then pre-processed for using in MATLAB software. After initial experiments on the appropriate neural network architecture for body weight at 6-month age, two networks were examined. A feed-forward back propagation multilayer perceptron (MLP) algorithm was used and 70% of all data used as training data, 15% as testing data and 15% as validating data, to prevent over-fitting of the artificial neural network. Results showed that the both networks capable to predict breeding values for body weight at 6 month-age in Kermani sheep. It can be concluded that artificial neural network has a good ability to predict growth traits in Kermani sheep with an acceptable speed and accuracy. Therefore, this network, instead of commonly-used procedures can be used to estimate the breeding values for productive and reproductive traits in domestic animals.