Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Genetics

The genetic diversity, relationships and population structure of sixty Egyptian camels derived from four breeds (Baladi, Sudani, Somali, and Maghrabi) were investigated using 18 microsatellite (SSRs) loci. In addition, the four breeds were genotyped using 16 start codon targeted (SCoT) primers. Moreover, an attempt has been made to establish a reliable cryopreservation protocol for camel oocytes using the open pulled straw (OPS) vitrification strategy. A total of 346 SSR alleles were detected across the four camel breeds with an overall mean of 9.3±0.66 alleles / locus. The mean number of alleles (MNA) and effective number of alleles (Ne) ranged from 9.±1.45 in the Baladi to 9. ±1.27 in the Maghrabi breeds and from 6.5±0.82 in the Maghrabi to 7.1±0.93 in the Somali breeds, respectively. The values of observed and expected heterozygosity per breed varied from 0.82 ± 0.07 in the Maghrabi to 0.87±0.07 in the Sudani camel breeds, and from 0.75±0.03 in the Sudani to 0.79 ± 0.03 in the Maghrabi breeds, respectively. The genetic diversity estimated as the Shannon{u2019}s information index (I) revealed that the highest value (1.88±0.14) in the Maghrabi breed and the lowest value (1.78±0.18) in the Sudani breed. Each of the four camel breeds was identified by unique or private alleles, i.e., 45, 63, 51 and 49 private alleles for the Baladi, Sudani, Somali and Maghrabi breeds, respectively. The values for fixation indices (FIS, FST and FIT) were -0.07284, 0.12364 and 0.05981, respectively. Thus indicating a moderate level of differentiation among the four breeds and a random mating process within each breed

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