Evaluation of the 17-plex STR kit for parentage testing of polish Coldblood and Hucul horses

Abstract

In this study, 17 microsatellite markers were evaluated for parentage testing in a group of Hucul and Polish Coldblood horses, whose parents were excluded in single loci. Despite the high polymorphism of the majority of 17 microsatellites an increase in homozygosity and deviations from H-W proportions were observed in some loci in the investigated populations. Deviations were observed mainly in loci where single exclusions were found. DNA typing problems of some microsatellite sequences, sex linkage of markers and the occurrence of null alleles are the basis for erroneous parentage exclusion. The relationship between these issues and population statistics and their impact on efficiency of parentage testing is discussed.