Five China native cattle breeds have been characterized by using 10 microsatellite DNA markers. The studied populations can be divided into five groups: Luxi cattle, Nanyang cattle, Jinnan cattle, Qinchuan cattle and Yanbian cattle. Allele frequencies were calculated and used for the characterization of the breeds and the study of their genetic relationships. Heterozygosity, polymorphism information content, the effective number of alleles was calculated. Nei's standard genetic distance (1978)

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... as calculated and used for a neighbor-joining tree construction. NJ tree showed that Luxi cattle, Nanyang cattle, Jinnan cattle and Qinchuan cattle are closely related, whereas Yanbian cattle are clearly distinct from other four populations. The genetic relationship of five breeds corresponds to their history and geographic origins. This work analyzes the recent origin of these populations and contributes to the knowledge and genetic characterization of China native breeds. (Asian-Aust. Y X XY J J J I = r x J j m