DNA barcoding of Chinese native chicken breeds through COI gene

Abstract

This study was done to investigate the viability and effectiveness of cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene in DNA barcoding for identification of Chinese native chickens. Two sequences of the COI gene of 64 chickens of four Chinese native breeds (16 of each breed) were analyzed by amplification and sequencing. Results showed that the bar1 sequence of COI had lower polymorphism compared to bar2. Bar1 had 1 polymorphic site and 2 haplotypes, while bar2 had 4 polymorphic sites and 8 haplotypes. The nucleotide polymorphism (Pi) in bar2 ranged from 0.00102 to 0.00305. The DNA taxonomy of bar2 was consistent with morphological taxonomy in all four native chicken breeds. The findings indicate that DNA barcoding with COI gene is an effective method and the bar2 sequence of COI gene is a better choice for DNA barcoding to identify Chinese native chicken breeds.