Differentiation and phylogenetic relationship of different geographic populations of Tibetan chicken,Gallus gallus domesticus

The tibetan chicken is a breed protected by the chinese state. it mainly comprises a tibet population and a sichuan population. this study aims to evaluate genetic diversity,phylogenetic relationships and population differentiation of populations through microsatellite and phenotypic methods. the results of 12 microsatellite loci reveal 62 alleles in all populations,29 alleles shared by two populations,23 private alleles in the tibet population,and 10 private alleles in the sichuan population. the mean expected heterozygosity (he) is 0.635 and 0.496 for the tibet and sichuan populations,respectively; the mean observed heterozygosity (ho) is 0.457 and 0.371 for the tibet and sichuan populations,respectively. fis values of tibetan and sichuan populations are 0.333 and 0.163,respectively. fst value between these populations is 0.2172 (p<0.0001). phenotypic research indicates that the sichuan population has better growth performance and smaller body size than that of the tibet population. thus,the two populations of tibet chicken have a medium level of gene differentiation and different phenotypic characters,and should be separated protection. copyright © 2014 zoological society of pakistan.