Skip to main content

Genetic variation in two conserved local Romanian pig breeds using type 1 DNA markers

Abstract

Analysis of the genetic variation of an endangered population is an important component for the success of conservation. Animals from two local Romanian pig breeds, the Mangalitsa and Bazna, were analysed for variation at a number of genetic loci using PCR-based DNA tests. Polymorphism was assessed at loci which 1) are known to cause phenotypic variation, 2) are potentially involved in trait differences or 3) are putative candidate genes. The traits considered are disease resistance, growth, coat colour, meat quality and prolificacy. Even though the populations are small and the markers are limited to specific genes, we found significant differences in five of the ten characterised loci. In some cases the observed allele frequencies were interesting in relation to gene function and the phenotype of the breed. These breeds are part of a conservation programme in Romania and marker information may be useful in preserving a representative gene pool in the populations. The use of polymorphisms in type 1 (gene) markers may be a useful complement to analysis based on anonymous markers.

(To access the full article, please see PDF)

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel C Ciobanu.

Rights and permissions

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ciobanu, D.C., Day, A.E., Nagy, A. et al. Genetic variation in two conserved local Romanian pig breeds using type 1 DNA markers. Genet Sel Evol 33, 417 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-33-4-417

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-33-4-417

Keywords