In this study, the genetic structures and relationships of native Turkish dog breeds were investigated using 20 polymorphic loci (17 microsatellites and 3 proteins). For this aim, a total of 141 blood samples were taken from Turkish shepherd dogs and Turkish Greyhounds located in several geographical regions of Turkey. | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2013) 37: 176-183 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Genetic variability among native dog breeds in Turkey 1, 2 3 1 Metin ERDOĞAN *, Cafer TEPELİ , Bertram BRENIG , Mine DOSAY AKBULUT , 1 4 5 Cevdet UĞUZ , Peter SAVOLAINEN , Ceyhan ÖZBEYAZ 1 Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey 2 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey 3 Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Göttingen University, Göttingen, Germany 4 Division of Gene Technology, KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Science for Life Laboratory, Solna, Sweden 5 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: In this study, the genetic structures and relationships of native Turkish dog breeds were investigated using 20 polymorphic loci (17 microsatellites and 3 proteins). For this aim, a total of 141 blood samples were taken from Turkish shepherd dogs and Turkish Greyhounds located in several geographical regions of Turkey. Multilocus FST values indicated that around of the total genetic variation could be explained by breed differences and the remaining by differences among individuals. The gene flow between populations within each generation varied between (Akbash–White Kars Shepherd dog pairs) and (Black–Grey Kars Shepherd dog pairs). Four different groups appeared in the 3-dimensional factorial correspondence analysis, and among these, dogs from the Akbash, Kangal, Kars Shepherd, and Turkish Greyhound breeds grouped in clearly separated clusters in distant parts of the 3-dimensional graph. These results clearly show that Akbash and Kangal Shepherd dogs are different populations with different genetic .
