assessing genetic diversity in eight indigenous iranian sheep breeds (ovis aries) using aflp markers

in this study genetic diversity of eight iranian sheep breeds including; lori bakhtiari, makuei, moghani, taleshi, shal, zandi, naeini and kalakui was studied by using aflp method. a total of 309 individuals were analysed that produced 121 clear polymorphic bands. the average of heterozygosity within breed (hs) was high and equal to 0.2795± 0.0255. also, the average heterozygosity between breeds (dst) was very low and equal to 0.0184. the maximum and minimum genetic distance was obtained between lori bakhtiari and makuei (0.0151) and between lori bakhtiari and taleshi (0.0486) respectively. gene flow value (nm) was very high and estimated to 7.5685. the upgma tree based on jacard genetic cluster similarity index revealed association among sheep breeds. principal component analysis (pca) demonstrated that different sheep breeds tend to group together. the phylogenetic tree based on nei's unbiased measures of genetic identity and genetic distance (1978) and upgma algorithm indicated a relatively agreement with biogeographical distance and phenotypic characteristics of breeds and may reflect undocumented migrations, gen flows and identify an original genetic resource. in this study no breed specific markers identified.