Abstract
In order to assess and characterize genetic diversity of Saudi Arabia native chickens, a total of 25 individuals were genotyped using panel of12 microsatellites (MS) markers, and the highly polymorphic MS markers were selected based on the highest value of the number of alleles. Twenty-three alleles were amplified using microsatellites primers with score-able fragment sizes ranging from approximately 110 to 343bp. fourteen alleles were found polymorphic, revealing 60.8% polymorphism rate. The genetic distance(GD) was estimated according to microsatellites data, estimated GD value ranged between 35.6 and 88. The highest GD value was 88.2 between chicken sample no. 5 and chicken sample no. 8, while the lowest GD was 35.6 between chicken sample no. 10 and chicken sample no. 26. Neighbor-joint method clustering grouped samples into two groups, where the two chicken samples no. 10 and 23 were clustered in different group. Thus this penal of microsatellites markers provide good insight into the genetic diversity available across Saudi indigenous chickens of either close or distant genetic backgrounds. It also could be concluded that Saudi indigenous chickens possess the needed amount of genetic variation required for further genetic improvement of these breeds.