Association of microsatellite markers with fiber diameter trait in Peruvian alpacas (Vicugna pacos)

A total of 140 Peruvian alpacas of two breeds (Huacaya and Suri) were analyzed for 69 microsatellite markers, in order to make a first approximation to the association analysis with the alpaca fiber diameter, which is the main trait related to alpaca fiber quality. A total of 599 alleles were observed across the two breeds, with a global average of 8.68 alleles per locus. Mean gene diversity in the total population was 0.701, meanwhile both breeds exhibited similar values of 0.686 (Suri) and 0.695 (Huacaya). On the other hand, the values from the inbreeding coefficient (FIS) were 0.154 (Suri) and 0.162 (Huacaya) in both breeds, being the genetic differentiation low between these populations (FST¼0.022), and with a gene flow (Nm) value of 9.3. The hierarchical AMOVA corroborated that the differentiation between both breeds only explained the 2.5% of genetic variability.