From these data it was concluded that the examined Arab horses are not cross- bred of Iranian Arab and exotic race horse such as Arab, Anglo-Arab and Thoroughbred

Pajouhesh & Sazandegi No 66 pp: 33-38

By : F. Afraz, Animal Science Research Institute Karaj, Iran , S. Esmailkhanian, Animal Science Research Institute Karaj, Iran and H.R. Seydabady, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

The present research has been carried out to identify polymorphism at five blood plasma and erythrocyte proteins in Arab and Caspian minature horse population.

Gene frequencies were analyzed at five loci controlling blood proteins; alkaline phosphatase (Alp) , catalase (Cat) , cell esterase (CEs), hemoglubin (Hb) and pretransferrin (Ptf). In addition , heterozygosity and effective allele numbers within each population have also been determined. Plasma and erythrocyte were electrophoresed for the mentioned proteins, using starch and polyacrylamid gels.

Among of five examined loci, only Cat locus showed polymorphism that phenotypes were FF, FS and SS. Allele frequency difference F and S for two populations was too slight. Alp , CEs , Hb and Ptf were fixed at A, 1, 1 and F alleles , respectively.

The average heterozygosity and effective allele numbers were calculated 0.1003, 1.1998 and 0.0973, 1.1874 in Caspian minature and Arab populations, respectively. From these data it was concluded that the examined Arab horses are not cross- bred of Iranian Arab and exotic race horse such as Arab, Anglo- Arab and Thoroughbred

Key words: Arab horse, Caspian minature, Electrophoresis, Protein, Genetic diversity.