Genetic Diversity of Populations of Akhal-Teke Horses from the Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia and Switzerland

• Main Authors: Iva Jiskrová, Irena Vrtková, Michaela Prausová
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mendel University Press 2016-01-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis
• Subjects: Akhal-Teke horse; microsatellite variability; genetic diversity; genetic distance
• Online Access: https://acta.mendelu.cz/64/2/0461/
• ISSN: 1211-8516; 2464-8310

Our research objective was to evaluate the genetic parameters in the populations of Akhal-Teke horses in 4 countries: Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia and Switzerland. The experiment involved a total of 325 Akhal-Teke horses; 121 horses came from the Czech Republic, 152 were from Russia, 28 were from Estonia and 24 horses came from Switzerland. For the divided database of micro satellites we evaluated the following parameters: effective number of alleles, frequency of alleles for the groups of horses; the observed heterozygosity (HO); the expected heterozygosity (HE); the inbreeding coefficient (Fis); and the genetic distance. The researched population is polymorphous. The population in the Czech Republic differs from the other three countries in the numbers of alleles per locus. The Czech population also includes Akhal-Teke horses which are not purebred Akhal-Teke horses. A confirmation of this fact is the effective number of alleles. The population in the Czech Republic exhibits the highest mean number of effective alleles. The Akhal-Teke population in Estonia exhibits the highest mean observed heterozygosity. By contrast, the population in the Czech Republic exhibits the lowest mean observed heterozygosity. In the Czech Republic the mean Fis value is a positive number indicating a reduced number of heterozygotes in the Czech Akhal-Teke population. The genetic distance is the highest between populations of horses bred in Russia and Estonia. The genetic distance is the lowest between populations of Akhal-Teke horses bred in Russia and in the Czech Republic.