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Department of Biological Sciences, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait.

e-mail: suzanne@kuc0l.kuniv.edu.kw

ABSTRACT 

RAPD-PCR is a powerful technique in DNA profiling that can be employed for the genetic characterization of species and to compare different populations of the same species for genetic similarity and variability. In this study, RAPD-PCR was first optimized for reproducibility and consistency and was then applied for the determination of genetic similarity and variability among individuals in a group of inbred Sprague-Dawley rats and between two different groups of inbred Sprague-Dawley rats. The randomly selected animals were all adult females comprising a total sample of 40 animals. RAPD-PCR using two commercially available decamer primers produced ten bands that were visualized on an agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide. The products detected were used to generate genetic profiles for each sample in order to measure genetic similarity. This was achieved by determining the number of bands shared and their frequency. The analysis showed that there was one monomorphic band (750 bp), which may be considered specific for this strain as 97.4% of samples shared this band. There was only one highly polymorphic band (500 bp) detected among all the samples analyzed (18%). The results indicated that the two groups of inbred rats were genetically very similar. This study has illustrated the usefulness of RAPD-PCR in the genetic monitoring of laboratory-inbred rats as well as in the determination of the species-specific monomorphic DNA band.

Keywords: DNA fingerprinting; inbreeding; monomorphism; polymorphism; RAPD-PCR.