Parentage Verification of Iranian Caspian Horse Using Microsatellites Markers

The present study was to construct a parentage verification system for Iranian Caspian horse. A total number of 45 Caspian horse samples including 14 foals for parentage verification, 17 stallion and 14 mare for individual identification were genotyped. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood and the genotype were analysed by PCR procedure and using 7 microsatellite markers (AHT04, HMS03, HMS06, HTG06, HTG07, LEX33 and VHL20). The number of alleles per locus varied from 3 to 4 with mean value of 3.86. The expected heterozygosity was ranged from 0.617 to 0.741 (mean 0.675), and the total exclusion probability (PE) of 7 microstellite loci was 0.973. All markers have relatively high polymorphic information content (PIC) value (> 0.6). All foals were qualified by compatibility according to the Mendelism. This study suggests that the DNA typing method has high potential for parentage testing and individual identification of  Iranian Caspian horses.