Monitoraggio e salvaguardia delle razze asinine autoctone della Sardegna attraverso l'impiego di marcatori molecolari

Sardo and Asinara donkey are classified as endangered and critical rispectively (Risk status classification–FAO). Preservation of these genetic resources is of fundamental importance to protect animal biodiversity. To evaluate the genetic variability of Sardinian donkeys and to estimate their relationships with other breeds, we genotyped 130 individuals from 7 italian breeds using 3 FISSR(Fluorescent Inter Simple Sequence Repeat) markers. We also sequenced 120 individuals for 383bp of the mitochondrial HVSI region. Although FISSR have been never used in donkey, they appear to be effective tools for genotyping analysis.In this study, Bayesian cluster analysis underline that the two sardinian breeds are well-separate from other breeds, and high genetic similarity between them.Very different patterns were found between Asinara and Barockesel donkey, despite their phenotypic similarity. In mitochondrial (HVSI region) analysis, AMOVA and Haplotype analysis reveal that Sardo and Asinara donkey are poorly differentiated within Asinara Island, whereas haplotype differences are evident between Sardinia vs Asinara populations. The median joining network shows both typical donkey CLADE1 (Somalicus) and CLADE2 (Nubian) in Sardinian population, with high prevalence of CLADE1, whereas Asinara population has haplotypes assigned exclusively to CLADE2 in Asinara breed. These results suggest the potential use these genetic for conservation plans.