Polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).

Abstract

By searching the EMBL nucleotide database a total of 157 rabbit nuclear gene microsatellites were obtained (VAN LITH and VAN ZUTPHEN, Animal Genetics 27, 387-395, 1996). Thirteen of these were analysed by PCR to examine the degree of polymorphism of the amplified fragments in rabbits from different breeds. The 13 pairs of primers resulted in polymorphic products with an average of four alleles per microsatellite sequence (ranging between 2-11). There was a positive relationship between the longest repeat unit number in the nucleotide sequence and the number of alleles detected. The results obtained so far justify the conclusion that rabbit microsatellites extracted from the EMBL nucleotide sequence database are sufficiently polymorphic to be useful as Type 1 markers in rabbit genetic studies.