Arabian horse registries classify Arabian horses based on their dam lineages into five main strains. To test the maternal origin of Syrian Arabian horses, 192 horses representing the three major strains Saglawi, Kahlawi, and Hamdani were sequenced for 353 bp of their mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop) region. Sequencing revealed 28 haplotypes comprising 38 sequence variations. The haplotype diversity values were 0.95, 0.91, and 0.90 in Kahlawi, Hamdani, and Saglawi strains, respectively. The pair-wise population differentiation estimates (Fst) between strains were low, ranging between 0.098 and 0.205. The haplotype diversity and the pair-wise population differentiation estimates (Fst) between strains showed high diversity within individuals of each strain and low variation between the three strains. Mitochondrial haplotypes scattered all over the neighbor-joining tree without clear separation of the three strains. In the median-joining network, the Syrian horses were grouped into seven major haplogroups. These results suggest that more than five ancestors exist that share common maternal haplotypes with other horse breeds.
Keywords: Arabian horse strains; D-loop; Genetic diversity; Mitochondrial DNA; Phylogeny.