Genetic Relationships Among Domestic and Jungle Fowls Revealed by DNA Fingerprinting Analysis.

Abstract

The origin of the domestic fowl and its relationship to the jungle fowl is a continuing interest to the scientists working with poultry. The present study was conducted in order to clarify the relationships among the domestic and jungle fowls using DNA fingerprinting (DFP). These DFP analyses were carried out by mixing equal amounts of DNA from several individuals of a particular population, resulting in a DFP parttern characteristic of the population. Similarities of DFP pattern between breeds or species of fowl were estimated using band sharing (BS) value. From the BS values, the Japanese native stocks and Chinese native stocks were found to form two separate groups, respectively. BS values between Green Jungle Fowl and all other stocks were generally low. Genetic distance among the domestic and jungle fowls was estimated as the mean number of nucleotide substitutions per nucleotide site. The results indicated that Red Jungle Fowl was relatively close to the domestic fowls. On the other hand, Green Jungle Fowl was found to be related most remotely to the domestic fowls. Thus, DFP analysis with mixed DNA could be effectively used to assess the genetic relationship among the stocks of fowls.