Abstract
Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique is new DNA marker method that detect numberless polymorphic bands, based on the selective amplification of restriction fragments. We applied the technology to five cattle breeds (Japanese Black, Japanese Brawn, Korean native, Hereford, Limousin) in Asia and Europe. Four primer combinations produced 95 polymorphic bands among breeds. Band sharing values based on those bands showed 0.659-0.776 between the breeds, and 0.753-0.854 within the breeds. Phylogenetic tree constructed by Unweighted pair group method average (UPGMA) method illustrated two major clusters, which were Japanese/Korean cattle cluster and European cattle cluster. The tree and band sharing values showed that Japanese Brown cattle was genetically located between Asian and European cattle breeds, indicating that Japanese Brown has been influenced by European breed. These results reflected the genealogy of these breeds. This study suggested that AFLP method is a easy and powerful tool for investigating the genetic relationships in cattle populations.
