Abstract
Genetic variability and genetic relationships were investigated among eight Chinese cattle breeds using 12 microsatellite markers. Three hundred and fifty-two alleles were detected and the average number of alleles per locus ranged from 8.33+/-1.67 in the Jiaxian breed to 21.33+/-5.60 in the Qinchuan breed with a mean value of 13.91. The total number of alleles per microsatellite ranged from 21 (INRA005, HEL1) to 40 (HEL13), with a mean of 29.33 per locus. The fixation indices at the 12 loci in the eight breeds were very low with a mean of 0.006. A principal components analysis and the construction of a neighbor joining tree showed that these eight Chinese cattle breeds cluster into three groups i.e. the Yanbian and Chinese Holstein, the Nanyang and Jiaxian, and the four remaining breeds.This clustering agrees with the origin and geographical distributions of these Chinese breeds.