Gene flow in three broiler chicken populations in Abeokuta using jackknife procedure

Abstract

Jackknife procedure (JP) is a less biased and fascinating method of obtaining gene flow among populations. The purpose of this study was to use JP to eliminate bias associated with indirect estimators of gene flow. With microsatellite markers, it has been possible to estimate gene flow (Nmo ) in natural populations. To quantify Nmo in chicken populations, we used five polymorphic microsatellite markers with 115 genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) obtained from (dihybrid (DH = 37), trihybrid (TH = 32) and Anak White (AW = 46) broiler chicken populations, respectively. Through polymerase chain reaction, we amplified DNA from the broiler chicken populations, subjected amplicons to electrophoresis, fragment sizes determined and analysed across populations considering selected markers through which standardized genetic variance among sub-populations in total sample depicted as (F)ST was obtained per marker for chicken population pairs. Its average across markers/population pairs was used to infer Nmo in the chicken population pairs. We used JP which is a mathematical approach that utilizes mean FST across markers to obtain Nmo in the chicken population pairs. Gene flow based on JP in chicken population pairs designated as (Nm)JP were 5.4267 (DH vs. TH), 7.0127 (TH vs. AW) and 11.7405 (DH vs. AW) and among chicken populations, (Nm)JP was 7.1969. Considering these estimates, we concluded that there was JP gene flow among the three broiler chicken populations examined in Abeokuta, Nigeria.