¹Bandırma OnyediEylül University, Susurluk Vocational School, Department of Food Processing Division, TR-10600 Balıkesir - TÜRKİYE DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2023.29090 In the present study, it was aimed to reveal the genetic diversity and bottleneck status of Karacabey Merino sheep with the help of 14 microsatellite markers recommended by the FAO. The study was carried out in a sheep breeding farm in Bandırma and 103 unrelated Karacabey merino sheep. The microsatellites used in this study showed high levels of polymorphism. A total of 290 alleles were detected in this study. The mean values of polymorphic information content (PIC=0.90), observed heterozygosity (Ho=0.89) and expected heterozygosity (He=0.91) were high, suggesting that the total analysed population is characterized by noticeable genetic variability. Ten out of the fourteen microsatellite markers studied had a positive FIS value. The mean value of FIS was 0.032. The infinite allele model (IAM), two-phase mutation model (TPM) and stepwise mutation model (SMM) in the Bottleneck software were used to check genetic bottlenecks. The L-shaped curve obtained from the analysis indicates the absence of a bottleneck in the Karacabey Merino sheep population studied. Keywords : Genetic bottleneck, Genetic diversity, Karacabey merino sheep, Microsatellite