ABSTRACT
Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness among the eight existing domesticated turkey strains is limited. To begin to address this paucity, genetic relatedness among five turkey strains (Blue Slate, Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Royal Palm, and Spanish Black) was investigated using three molecular marker systems: randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), microsatellite, and SNPs derived from a sequence tagged site and a cloned RAPD fragment. The RAPD analyses were based on five primers that revealed a total of 14 informative DNA fragments in all five populations. The microsatellite analyses involved two informative alleles from three primer-pairs. A total of nine SNPs were detected, one of which appeared to be strain specific. This SNP formed the basis of a PCR-RFLP genotyping procedure developed to distinguish one of the strains from the other four. Evidence from these analyses including the SNP-based RFLP-PCR suggests that Royal Palm is distinct from the other four strains, though more closely related to Narragansett. These data provide, for the first time, molecular evidence of the potential relationships among noncommercial domesticated turkey strains.
