Using cytochrome b gene of mtDNA as a DNA barcoding marker in chicken strains

Abstract

This was the second study to apply using of a cytochrome b gene as barcoding tool in distinguishing among chicken strains. We performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using universal primer to amplify around 415 bp fragment of cytochrome b gene of mtDNA. The tree reported that both Saudi chicken strains (black and dark brown) are closely related and it might be separated from same origin rather than bronze ones. The phylogenetic tree also, exploited that native chicken strains were closely related to cluster of Ceylon jungle fowl, black Minorca egg chicken and Fayoumi egg chicken. The genetic divergence between these populations or types of chickens in Saudi Arabia was low (0.02) and it was very low (0.011), when compared to other species of Gallus. We confirmed that short fragment of cyt-b gene as a universal DNA barcode region. It was much more accurate and efficient tool to discriminate inter-species than intra-species. Applying cyt-b of mtDNA was successfully distinguished among native strains and other species of Gallus as in a previous study. However, applying this thought on different species of farm animal species is recommended.

• Chicken
• cytochrome b gene
• DNA barcoding
• mtDNA

Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank Prof. Paul Hebert, Director of Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Canada for his encouragement and his scientific support.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.