This study was carried out to investigate genetic diversity in Mazandaranian native cattle population comparised to the Holstein breed, using Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) marker. A total of 175 animals, including 71 native and 104 cattle of Holstein breed were screened. The extraction of DNA samples were carried out, using modified salting out method. A 19-mer oligonucleotide, (GA)9C, was used as primer in PCR reactions. The PCR products showed 15 different fragments with length ranged from 120 to 1600 bp in the two breeds.. Genetic variation indexes, including effective number of alleles, Shannon index, Nei's gene diversity and standard genetic distance were estimated, using POPGene software. Generally, the estimated genetic variation indexes showed low levels of diversity in the two breeds. However, Nei's gene diversity and Shannon index estimation was observed almost two folds in native cattle compared to Holstein breed. Less levels of diversity in Holstein cattle may be because of applying intensive selection programs. Conversely, native cattle have been less affected by selection. Therefore, it seems that Mazandaranian native cattle probably are better for breeding programs than Holstein cattle. Results showed that ISSR Markers are reliable and can be used in genetic diversity investigations.
