Genetic analysis of the Sicilian Oriental Purebred horse

Sicilian Oriental Purebred is a small breed considered at critical risk status. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity of the extant selection nucleus, two different molecular markers were used. Twelve microsatellite loci were characterized to assess autosomal variability of a dataset including two other Sicilian autochthonous horse breed for comparison. Sicilian Oriental Purebred showed lower levels of diversity when compared with Sanfratellano and Sicilian Indigenous and a definite distinctiveness as revealed by genetic distances. Mitochondrial D-loop region (397 bp) was analysed in 20 Sicilian Oriental Purebred and other autochthonous horses to investigate matrilineal genetic diversity. Only one haplotype was found in Sicilian Oriental Purebred whereas high diversity was noticed in the other breeds. The unique haplotype overlapped with many database sequences (Gen-Bank) including five Sanfratellano horses.