Genetic Diversity Analysis of Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis L.) Populations in the Philippines Using Bovine Microsatellite Markers

A set of 110 cattle microsatellites primer pairs was evaluated for their usefulness in genetic diversity of water buffaloes in the Philippines i.e. American Murrah buffalo (AMB), Bulgarian Murrah buffalo (BMB), Philippine carabao (PC) and Crossbred (CB) of PC and BMB. All the four water buffalo samples were provided and maintained by the Philippine Carabao Center. Forty-five primer pairs amplified discrete products. Ten of the 45 pairs gave polymorphic band patterns in water buffaloes. We used these 10 microsatellites primers for genetic structure analysis of water buffaloes. The mean number of alleles per locus was 5.45, ranging from 4.60 to 6.4., and observed heterozygosity averaged 0.5024 from 0.4385 to 0.5810. The mean observed and expected heterozygosity of the 10 microsatellite markers were 0.56 and 0.50, respectively, in water buffaloes that were used in this study. The mean of polymorphic information content (PIC) of water buffaloes was 0.5174, ranging from 0.0192 to 0.7445. Phylogenetic analysis with these markers, showed that AMB and BMB clustered more closely than PC, indicating marked differentiation between the swamp and river buffalo populations. CB clustered in between PC and Murrah buffaloes, reflecting breeding history. In this study, we successfully selected cattle microsatellite primer pairs that shows appropriate polymorphisms which can be used for further genome analysis of water buffaloes in the Philippines.