The use of molecular markers for analyzing genes and genomes of livestock

The present thesis has been developed considering three different livestock species such as chicken, cattle and sheep. The aim of the study was the evaluation of the application of molecular makers in order to assay the genetic population structure on seven local breeds of chicken, to evaluate the applicability of candidate genes as support of conventional breeding on Piedmontese cattle breed and to detect new SNPs on a sheep population. The first two researchs were carried out at Department of Animal Science of University of Padova while the last one at Reprogen (Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, NSW, AUS).