Evaluation of genetic diversity and population structure of five Chinese indigenous donkey breeds using microsatellite markers

China had the largest population of raising donkeys in the world, however the number of Chinese indigenous donkey decreased dramatically due to the increase of agriculture mechanization in the last century. The species has still been important in China because of its edible and medical value, therefore the survey on its genetic diversity in China is necessary for its conservation and utilization. In this study, 15 microsatellite markers were used to evaluate genetic diversity and population structure of five Chinese indigenous donkey breeds. The mean values of expected heterozygosity, allelic richness, and total number of alleles for all the tested Chinese donkeys were 0.70, 6.04, and 6.28 respectively, suggesting that the genetic diversity of Chinese indigenous donkeys is rich. The Bayesian analysis and principal component analysis plot yielded the same clustering result, which revealed that Guanzhong donkey was the most differentiated breed in all detected samples, and Jinnan (JN) and...中国曾是世界上饲养驴数量最多的国家，但在上世纪农业机械化进程推进的过程中，中国本土驴的种群数量出现了大幅下降。该物种因其食用与药用价值，在中国仍具有重要地位，因此针对中国本土驴的遗传多样性开展调查，对其保护与利用而言极为必要。本研究采用15个微卫星标记（microsatellite markers），对5个中国本土驴品种的遗传多样性与种群结构进行了评估。经检测，所有供试中国本土驴的期望杂合度、等位基因丰富度以及等位基因总数的平均值分别为0.70、6.04与6.28，这表明中国本土驴的遗传多样性较为丰富。贝叶斯分析与主成分分析（principal component analysis）散点图得到了一致的聚类结果，显示关中驴在所有供试样本中是分化程度最高的品种，而晋南（JN）驴及……