Vietnamese chickens: a gate towards Asian genetic diversity

A total of 106 sequences from Vietnamese HG chickens were first compared to the sequences of published Chinese breeds. The 25 haplotypes observed in the Vietnamese HG population belonged to six previously published haplogroups which are: A, B, C, D, F and G. On average, breeds from the Chinese Yunnan province carried haplotypes from 4.3 haplogroups. For the HG population, haplogroup diversity is found at both the province and the village level (0.69).The AMOVA results show that genetic diversity occurred within the breeds rather than between breeds or provinces. Regarding the global structure of the mtDNA diversity per population, a characteristic of the HG population was the occurrence of similar pattern distribution as compared to G. gallus spadiceus. However, there was no geographical evidence of gene flow between wild and domestic populations as observed when microsatellites were used.In contrast to other chicken populations, the HG chicken population showed very high genetic diversity at both the nuclear and mitochondrial levels. Due to its past and recent history, this population accumulates a specific and rich gene pool highlighting its interest and the need for conservation.Chickens represent an important protein source for humans, as shown by a strong increase of poultry production around the world (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service - November 2005). Local populations contribute more specifically, to family poultry production, which is quite important for low income farmers from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the South Pacific. These local populations that are easy to raise, are resilient to harsh environmental conditions and may harbour original features of disease resistance [1]. Within this framework, chicken genetic resources have been well investigated during the last decade [2-5] using microsatellite data. Surprisingly, the number and location of chicken domestication centres are not completely clarified. The first genetic study on mtDNA suggested th