Genetic Diversity within Bactrian Camel Population of Ardebil Province

The Bactrian camel of Ardebil province, northwestern of Iran, is an adapted genetic resource and a great national wealth; however its population has dramatically decreased in numbers. Therefore, we aim to investigate the mitochondrial genetic diversity within this population. In 37 individuals, a 518-bp region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that spanned a portion of the cytochrome b gene, the tRNAs praline and threonine, and the beginning of the control region were successfully amplified and aligned to the Bactrian mtDNA reference sequence. In total, we recovered 5 polymorphic sites and five distinct haplotypes. The heterozygosis estimated from the haplotype frequencies were 0.503 indicating an unexpected high genetic diversity within Iranian Bactrian camels. Our results have important implications for the conservation of genetic diversity and the management of livestock production to facilitate the retention of or potential increase in the camels’ economic value. Further studies using nuclear DNA such as Y chromosome markers and microsatellites or single nucleotide polymorphisms are encouraged to substantiate the results of this study.