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.阿拉伯马（Arabian horse）始终唤起全球民众的丰富想象。该品种的种群广泛分布于诸多国家，近期的遗传学研究已针对其中少数种群开展了孤立式的多样性与血统起源分析。本研究聚焦由682匹阿拉伯马组成的7个不同种群展开探究：其中3个种群取自该品种历史起源地周边的中东区域，分别为叙利亚阿拉伯马、波斯阿拉伯马与沙特阿拉伯阿拉伯马种群；剩余的4个西方种群分布于欧洲（沙加阿拉伯马(Shagya-Arabian)与波兰阿拉伯马(Polish-Arabian)）以及美洲（美洲阿拉伯马(American-Arabian)）。本研究采用15个微卫星位点(microsatellite loci)对遗传结构进行分析，运用了遗传距离分析、分子方差分析(AMOVA)、对应因子分析(factorial correspondence analysis)以及贝叶斯方法。分析结果一致显示，中东种群的遗传多样性水平显著高于西方种群；西方阿拉伯马种群是种群间遗传变异的主要来源。中东各阿拉伯马种群间的遗传分化程度并不显著，但所有美洲阿拉伯马种群均与中东种群存在明显遗传分化，且其内部种群间的遗传一致性相对较高。本研究对多组不同的阿拉伯马种群的遗传多样性展开探究后发现，非中东起源的阿拉伯马种群遗传多样性水平显著偏低，这可能会对这些种群的健康产生不利影响。