Data from: Microsatellite analysis of genetic diversity and population structure of Arabian horse populations

The Arabian horse ignites imagination throughout the world. Populations of
this breed exist in many countries, and recent genetic work has examined
the diversity and ancestry of a few of these populations in isolation.
Here we explore seven different populations of Arabians represented by 682
horses. Three of these are Middle Eastern populations from near the
historical origin of the breed, including Syrian, Persian, and Saudi
Arabian. The remaining Western populations are found in Europe (the
Shagya-Arabian and Polish-Arabian) and America (American-Arabian).
Analysis of genetic structure was carried out using 15 microsatellite
loci. Genetic distances, AMOVA, factorial correspondence analysis and a
Bayesian method were applied. The results consistently show higher level
of diversity within the Middle Eastern populations than the Western
populations. The Western Arabian populations were the main source of among
populations variation. Genetic differentiation was not strong among all
Middle Eastern populations, but all American-Arabians showed
differentiation from Middle Eastern populations and were somewhat uniform
among themselves. Here, we explore the diversities of many different
populations of Arabian horses, and find that populations not from the
Middle East have noticeably lower levels of diversity, which may adversely
affect the health of these populations.