Genetic Diversity of a Chinese Native Chicken Breed, Bian Chicken, Based on Twenty-Nine Microsatellite Markers (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Microsatellites are characterized by tandem repeats of one to six bases (Muhammet et al., 2008). Compared to other types of molecular markers, microsatellites have many advantages such as being numerous and ubiquitous throughout the genome, showing a high degree of polymorphism, and codominant inheritance (Cheng and Crittenden, 1994). Until now, microsatellite markers are the most widely used when assessing the genetic diversity, mapping of QTLs, population structure and relationship in and among various populations of indigenous and commercial chickens including Jungle Fowl (Mwacharo et al., 2007; Berthouly et al., 2008; Bodzsar et al., 2009; Heifetz et al., 2009).