Genetic Relatedness of Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl and Single Comb White Leghorn Chickens

The Pearl Grey (PG) guinea fowl and the Single Comb White Leghorn (SCWL) chickens are considered egg layers among their species. The SCWL chicken has been developed extensively for commercial egg production whereas the PG guinea fowl is a seasonal and a poor egg producer. The objective of this study was to establish genetic relatedness of the two avian species to aid future programs of improving egg production in guinea fowl using the available resources such as genetic markers developed for the SCWL chicken. The genetic similarity between the PG guinea fowl and the SCWL chickens was evaluated using the random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD). A total of 220 and 185 RAPD alleles were amplified in SCWL chickens and PG guinea fowl, respectively. The alleles ranged in size from 150-2650 and 200-2600 bp in chickens and guinea fowl, respectively. The RAPD analysis yielded polymorphic bands in SCWL chickens and PG guinea fowl that constituted 13% and 9%, respectively, of the total number of alleles amplified in each species. Genetic similarity within SCWL chickens and PG guinea fowl was 95.6 and 92.2%, respectively. However, genetic similarity between SCWL chickens and PG guinea fowl was 31.3%. While the RAPD analyses seem useful in estimating genetic similarity between SCWL chickens and PG guinea fowl, the level of polymorphisms and the genetic diversity between the two avian species suggest the need to generate genetic resource information specific to guinea fowl for genetic improvement of the PG guinea fowl.