Genetic Diversity of Tendürek Mouflon Population

Genetic diversity is an important factor influencing a population’s capability of long term survival. Studying biodiversity is a basic approach to make suitable decisions to protect the endangered species. For this purpose, 75 biological samples were collected from Tendürek National Park mouflon population. High quality genomic DNA was extracted from blood, meat, hair and bone samples. A set of ten microsatellite loci were selected for analysis of genetic variability. Based on PCR and electrophoresis results, all studied markers were found polymorphic. Across the 10 microsatellite loci, total 61 alleles with an average number of 6.1 allele per locus were detected. The highest number of observed alleles belonged to MAF36 locus (8 allele) and the lowest was for OarFCB304 and OarHH47 loci (5 allele). Mean observed heterozygosity and mean expected heterozygosity were 0.5842 and 0.7849 respectively. Mean Fixation index (FST) in this study was 0.2508. Results revealed that inbreeding in Tendürek mouflon population has increased to dangerously high levels. These findings indicate the reduction of genetic diversity in this population that is so necessary for survival of this species