Genetic diversity of Old Kladruber and Nonius horse populations through microsatellite variation analysis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity across horse populations of Old Kladruber and Nonius breeds and to assess the degree of subdivision based on genetic relationships within them. In total, 270 Czech Old Kladruber and 18 Nonius horses from Slovak studs have been included in study. To determine the level of genetic variability the dataset of 17 microsatellites has been used. The average values of observed heterozygosity (0.68 ± 0.03) and gene diversity (0.66 ± 0.02) indicated good level of variability across populations. The value of FIS (0.04 ± 0.02) showed relative balanced proportion of homozygotes and heterozygotes and signalized the existence of HWE across populations. According to the value of Shannon’s information index (1.48 ± 0.07) the high degree of overall variability has been confirmed. Most of the variations in dataset explained the differences among individuals within each population. The FST index and Nei’s distances showed stronger connection between the Old Kladruby black variety and the Nonius, compared to the grey variety. The segregation of Nonius and Old Kladruber populations demonstrated also results of PCA analysis.