Scientific reports.
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group,
Frequency: Continuously updated
Country: England
Language: English
Start Year:2011 -
ISSN:
2045-2322 (Electronic)
2045-2322 (Linking)
2045-2322 (Linking)
Impact Factor
4.6
2022
| NLM ID: | 101563288 |
| (OCoLC): | 732869387 |
| LCCN: | 2011250880 |
The P-glycoprotein repertoire of the equine parasitic nematode Parascaris univalens. P-glycoproteins (Pgp) have been proposed as contributors to the widespread macrocyclic lactone (ML) resistance in several nematode species including a major pathogen of foals, Parascaris univalens. Using new and available RNA-seq data, ten different genomic loci encoding Pgps were identified and characterized by transcriptome-guided RT-PCRs and Sanger sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis revealed an ascarid-specific Pgp lineage, Pgp-18, as well as two paralogues of Pgp-11 and Pgp-16. Comparative gene expression analyses in P. univalens and Caenorhabditis elegans show that the intestine is the maj...
Whole genome analysis reveals aneuploidies in early pregnancy loss in the horse. The first 8 weeks of pregnancy is a critical time, with the majority of pregnancy losses occurring during this period. Abnormal chromosome number (aneuploidy) is a common finding in human miscarriage, yet is rarely reported in domestic animals. Equine early pregnancy loss (EPL) has no diagnosis in over 80% of cases. The aim of this study was to characterise aneuploidies associated with equine EPL. Genomic DNA from clinical cases of spontaneous miscarriage (EPLs; 14-65 days of gestation) and healthy control placentae (various gestational ages) were assessed using a high density genotyping arr...
A genome-wide scan for candidate lethal variants in Thoroughbred horses. Domestic animal populations are often characterised by high rates of inbreeding and low effective population sizes due to selective breeding practices. These practices can result in otherwise rare recessive deleterious alleles drifting to high frequencies, resulting in reduced fertility rates. This study aimed to identify potential recessive lethal haplotypes in the Thoroughbred horse breed, a closed population that has been selectively bred for racing performance. In this study, we identified a haplotype in the LY49B gene that shows strong evidence of being homozygous lethal, despite having h...
Deep Learning-Based Quantification of Pulmonary Hemosiderophages in Cytology Slides. Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) is a common condition in sport horses with negative impact on performance. Cytology of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid by use of a scoring system is considered the most sensitive diagnostic method. Macrophages are classified depending on the degree of cytoplasmic hemosiderin content. The current gold standard is manual grading, which is however monotonous and time-consuming. We evaluated state-of-the-art deep learning-based methods for single cell macrophage classification and compared them against the performance of nine cytology experts and evaluated...
Author Correction: Detection of Neorickettsia risticii, the agent of Potomac horse fever, in horses from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Publisher Correction: Differences in the intrinsic chondrogenic potential of equine umbilical cord matrix and cord blood mesenchymal stromal/stem cells for cartilage regeneration. An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Horseback riding pathways and harbors at the beginning of the colonial era in Mexico. The introduction of horses in the New World changed the way of traveling on complex terrains. This change reconfigured the land transport network connecting harbors in the region. However, data of horseback riding pathways among harbors is scarce. We analyzed the case of Mexico at the beginning of the colonial period to recreate routes that connected ancient harbors and to identify the network characteristics of a large-scale system of routes. We used the complex systems approach as a framework in which we applied the least cost path analysis to reconstruct a network of horseback paths, and we...
Replication of Equine arteritis virus is efficiently suppressed by purine and pyrimidine biosynthesis inhibitors. RNA viruses are responsible for a large variety of animal infections. Equine Arteritis Virus (EAV) is a positive single-stranded RNA virus member of the family Arteriviridae from the order Nidovirales like the Coronaviridae. EAV causes respiratory and reproductive diseases in equids. Although two vaccines are available, the vaccination coverage of the equine population is largely insufficient to prevent new EAV outbreaks around the world. In this study, we present a high-throughput in vitro assay suitable for testing candidate antiviral molecules on equine dermal cells infected by EAV. Using t...
Genome Diversity and the Origin of the Arabian Horse. The Arabian horse, one of the world's oldest breeds of any domesticated animal, is characterized by natural beauty, graceful movement, athletic endurance, and, as a result of its development in the arid Middle East, the ability to thrive in a hot, dry environment. Here we studied 378 Arabian horses from 12 countries using equine single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and whole-genome re-sequencing to examine hypotheses about genomic diversity, population structure, and the relationship of the Arabian to other horse breeds. We identified a high degree of genetic variation and complex ances...
Identification of the novel polymorphisms and potential genetic features of the prion protein gene (PRNP) in horses, a prion disease-resistant animal. Prion diseases, a protein misfolded disorder (PMD) caused by misfolded prion protein (PrP), present in a wide variety of hosts, ranging from ungulates to humans. To date, prion infections have not been reported in horses, which are well-known as prion disease-resistant animals. Several studies have attempted to identify distinctive features in the prion protein of horses compared to prion disease-susceptible animals, without the study on polymorphisms of the horse prion protein gene (PRNP). Since single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of PRNP in prion disease-susceptible animals are major susc...
Priming for welfare: gut microbiota is associated with equitation conditions and behavior in horse athletes. We simultaneously measured the fecal microbiota and multiple environmental and host-related variables in a cohort of 185 healthy horses reared in similar conditions during a period of eight months. The pattern of rare bacteria varied from host to host and was largely different between two time points. Among a suite of variables examined, equitation factors were highly associated with the gut microbiota variability, evoking a relationship between gut microbiota and high levels of physical and mental stressors. Behavioral indicators that pointed toward a compromised welfare state (e.g. stereotyp...
Equine penile squamous cell carcinoma: expression of biomarker proteins and EcPV2. Equine penile squamous cell carcinoma (EpSCC) is a relatively common cutaneous neoplasm with a poor prognosis. In this study, we aimed to determine the protein expression and colocalisation of FRA1, c-Myc, Cyclin D1, and MMP7 in normal (NT), tumour (T), hyperplastic epidermis and/or squamous papilloma (Hyp/Pap), poorly-differentiated (PDSCC), or well-differentiated (WDSCC) EpSCC using a tissue array approach. Further objectives were to correlate protein expression to (i) levels of inflammation, using a convolutional neural network (ii) equine papillomavirus 2 (EcPV2) infection, detected using ...
Efficient correction of a deleterious point mutation in primary horse fibroblasts with CRISPR-Cas9. Phenotypic selection during animal domestication has resulted in unwanted incorporation of deleterious mutations. In horses, the autosomal recessive condition known as Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency (GBED) is the result of one of these deleterious mutations (102C > A), in the first exon of the GBE1 gene (GBE1). With recent advances in genome editing, this type of genetic mutation can be precisely repaired. In this study, we used the RNA-guided nuclease CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9) to correct the GBE1 mutation in a...
Detection of Neorickettsia risticii, the agent of Potomac horse fever, in horses from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This study aims to report the presence of Neorickettsia risticii DNA in blood samples from naturally infected horses in Rio de Janeiro, provide clinicopathological findings related to the infection, and report the phylogenetic diversity of the 16S rDNA of N. risticii in order to evaluate its heterogeneity. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was performed to investigate the presence of N. risticii in samples collected from horses (n = 187). Five positive samples were found in the molecular screening. Hypoalbuminemia and high levels of creatine kinase and lactate dehydro...
The complexity of clinically-normal sinus-rhythm ECGs is decreased in equine athletes with a diagnosis of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Equine athletes have a pattern of exercise which is analogous to human athletes and the cardiovascular risks in both species are similar. Both species have a propensity for atrial fibrillation (AF), which is challenging to detect by ECG analysis when in paroxysmal form. We hypothesised that the proarrhythmic background present between fibrillation episodes in paroxysmal AF (PAF) might be detectable by complexity analysis of apparently normal sinus-rhythm ECGs. In this retrospective study ECG recordings were obtained during routine clinical work from 82 healthy horses and from 10 horses with a ...
Modulation of stress and immune response by Amblyomin-X results in tumor cell death in a horse melanoma model. We have investigated Amblyomin-X-treated horse melanomas to better understand its mode of action through transcriptome analysis and the in vivo model. Amblyomin-X is a Kunitz-type homologous protein that selectively leads to the death of tumor cells via ER stress and apoptosis, currently under investigation as a new drug candidate for cancer treatment. Melanomas are immunogenic tumors, and a better understanding of the immune responses is warranted. Equine melanomas are spontaneous and not so aggressive as human melanomas are, as this study shows that the in vivo treatment of encapsulated hors...
Female horses spontaneously identify a photograph of their keeper, last seen six months previously. Horses are capable of identifying individual conspecifics based on olfactory, auditory or visual cues. However, this raises the questions of their ability to recognize human beings and on the basis of what cues. This study investigated whether horses could differentiate between a familiar and unfamiliar human from photographs of faces. Eleven horses were trained on a discrimination task using a computer-controlled screen, on which two photographs were presented simultaneously (32 trials/session): touching one was rewarded (S+) and the other not (S-). In the training phase, the S+ faces were of...
Author Correction: Spotted phenotypes in horses lost attractiveness in the Middle Ages. An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Rapid isothermal duplex real-time recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay for the diagnosis of equine piroplasmosis. Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is a severe disease of horses caused by the tick-borne protozoa Theileria equi (T. equi) and Babesia caballi (B. caballi). Infectious carriers are not always symptomatic, meaning there is a risk to non-enzootic areas. Regulatory tests for EP include sero-epidemiological methods for equine babesiosis, but these lack specificity due to cross-reactivity with other Babesia species. In this study, we present a real-time quantitative recombinase polymerase amplification (qRPA) method for fast simultaneous detection of both T. equi and B. caballi. In this method, primers and...
Molecular sexing and preliminary assessment of population sex ratio of the endangered Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) in Peninsular Malaysia. A molecular sexing method by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a portion of the sex-determining region Y (SRY) and the zinc finger (ZF) gene, as well as six equine Y-chromosome-specific microsatellite markers, were tested in the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). While the microsatellite markers did not yield any male-specific amplicons for sex-typing, the SRY/ZF marker system produced reliable molecular sexing results by accurately sex-typing 31 reference Malayan tapirs, using whole blood, dried blood spot (DBS), or tissue samples as materials for DNA extraction. The marker syste...
Energy metabolism of the equine cumulus oocyte complex during in vitro maturation. Horses are one of the few species, beside humans, in which assisted reproductive technology has important clinical applications. Furthermore, the horse can serve as a valuable model for the study of comparative reproductive biology. Here we present the first comprehensive characterisation of energy metabolism and mitochondrial efficiency in equine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) during in vitro maturation (IVM), as determined using a combination of non-invasive consumption and release assays and mitochondrial function analysis. These data reveal notable species-specific differences in the rate...
Spread of equine arteritis virus among Hucul horses with different EqCXCL16 genotypes and analysis of viral quasispecies from semen of selected stallions. Equine arteritis virus (EAV) is maintained in the horse populations through persistently infected stallions. The aims of the study were to monitor the spread of EAV among Polish Hucul horses, to analyse the variability of circulating EAVs both between- and within-horses, and to identify allelic variants of the serving stallions EqCXCL16 gene that had been previously shown to strongly correlate with long-term EAV persistence in stallions. Serum samples (n = 221) from 62 horses including 46 mares and 16 stallions were collected on routine basis between December 2010 and May 2013 and tested f...
Bit type exerts an influence on self-controlled rein tension in unridden horses. Bit configuration and acting rein forces play a crucial role in oral health and comfort of ridden horses. Although it is a big animal welfare issue, dynamic response of horses to different bits has yet not been thoroughly investigated. This convenience sample experimental study describes a model to overcome the almost uncontrollable influence of riders on rein tension and evaluates self-controlled maximum side rein tension of ten sound horses randomly bitted with a double-jointed (DJS) and a version of a Mullen mouth snaffle-bit under unridden conditions. Horses were exercised at walk and trot...
The oxytocin-prostaglandins pathways in the horse (Equus caballus) placenta during pregnancy, physiological parturition, and parturition with fetal membrane retention. Despite their importance in mammalian reproduction, substances in the oxytocin-prostaglandins pathways have not been investigated in the horse placenta during most of pregnancy and parturition. Therefore, we quantified placental content of oxytocin (OXT), oxytocin receptor (OXTR), and prostaglandin E2 and F2 alpha during days 90-240 of pregnancy (PREG), physiological parturition (PHYS), and parturition with fetal membrane retention (FMR) in heavy draft horses (PREG = 13, PHYS = 11, FMR = 10). We also quantified OXTR and prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase-2 (PTGS2) mRNA expression ...
Matrix metallopeptidase expression and modulation by transforming growth factor-β1 in equine endometrosis. Equine endometrial fibrosis (endometrosis) is described as a degenerative chronic condition in the uterus. Its characteristic feature is excessive deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) components around the endometrial glands and stroma. Although matrix metallopeptidases (MMPs) that mediate ECM turnover are important factors in the process of fibrosis, knowledge of their expression and regulation in endometrosis is limited. In other species, one of the important regulators of MMPs and tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) is transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1. The goal of this study was to de...
Embryo survival in the oviduct not significantly influenced by major histocompatibility complex social signaling in the horse. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) influences sexual selection in various vertebrates. Recently, MHC-linked social signaling was also shown to influence female fertility in horses (Equus caballus) diagnosed 17 days after fertilization. However, it remained unclear at which stage the pregnancy was terminated. Here we test if MHC-linked cryptic female choice in horses happens during the first days of pregnancy, i.e., until shortly after embryonic entrance into the uterus and before fixation in the endometrium. We exposed estrous mares to one of several unrelated stallions, instrumentally...
A Common Practice of Widespread Antimicrobial Use in Horse Production Promotes Multi-Drug Resistance. The practice of prophylactic administration of a macrolide antimicrobial with rifampin (MaR) to apparently healthy foals with pulmonary lesions identified by thoracic ultrasonography (i.e., subclinically pneumonic foals) is common in the United States. The practice has been associated epidemiologically with emergence of R. equi resistant to MaR. Here, we report direct evidence of multi-drug resistance among foals treated with MaR. In silico and in vitro analysis of the fecal microbiome and resistome of 38 subclinically pneumonic foals treated with either MaR (n = 19) or gallium maltolate (...
Genomic inbreeding trends, influential sire lines and selection in the global Thoroughbred horse population. The Thoroughbred horse is a highly valued domestic animal population under strong selection for athletic phenotypes. Here we present a high resolution genomics-based analysis of inbreeding in the population that may form the basis for evidence-based discussion amid concerns in the breeding industry over the increasing use of small numbers of popular sire lines, which may accelerate a loss of genetic diversity. In the most comprehensive globally representative sample of Thoroughbreds to-date (n = 10,118), including prominent stallions (n = 305) from the major bloodstock regions of the w...
The composition of the perinatal intestinal microbiota in horse. The establishment of the intestinal microbiota is critical for the digestive and immune systems. We studied the early development of the rectal microbiota in horse, a hindgut fermenter, from birth until 7 days of age, by qPCR and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. To evaluate initial sources of the foal microbiota, we characterised dam fecal, vaginal and oral microbiotas. We utilised an amplicon sequence variant (ASV) pipeline to maximise resolution and reproducibility. Stringent ASV filtering based on prevalence and abundance in samples and controls purged contaminants while preserving intest...
The neurocognitive gains of diagnostic reasoning training using simulated interactive veterinary cases. The present longitudinal study ascertained training-associated transformations in the neural underpinnings of diagnostic reasoning, using a simulation game named "Equine Virtual Farm" (EVF). Twenty participants underwent structural, EVF/task-based and resting-state MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) before and after completing their training on diagnosing simulated veterinary cases. Comparing playing veterinarian versus seeing a colorful image across training sessions revealed the transition of brain activity from scientific creativity regions pre-training (left middle frontal and temporal...