Isolation and Characterization of Microsatellite Markers from Endangered Species (Camelus bactrianus)

Iranian bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is an endangered livestock breed with distribution in northwest of Iran. Microsatellites are a powerful marker for animal genetic and cell line identification and population genetic study. In this study, after producing more than 40 Camelus bactrianus fibroblast cell lines, microsatellites loci from the genome of Iranian Camelus bactrianus cell lines were identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based isolation of microsatellite arrays (PIMA) methods for genetic resources studies. PIMA is a relatively simple method which avoids not only library construction, but also radioactivity manipulation. Four polymorphic microsatellite loci (IBRC01 to IBRC04) were identified. Polymorphism of these new loci was assessed in 40 samples of Iranian bactrian camel. Number of alleles ranged from 3 to 5, observed and expected heterozygosity varied from 0.625 to 0.71 and from 0.642 to 0.807 and Shannon index from 0.89 to 1.603, respectively. The phylogeny analysis of all sequences indicated that breeds and species were grouped according to their geographic locations except a few sequences. These newly isolated polymorphic microsatellite markers would be useful tools for conservation genetic resources and population genetic studies and assessing genetic variations to establish a conservation strategy of this endangered species.