Bioinformatics in horses involves the application of computational tools and techniques to analyze and interpret biological data related to equine species. This interdisciplinary field integrates biology, computer science, and information technology to study genetic, genomic, and proteomic information in horses. Bioinformatics can be used to investigate genetic variations, understand disease mechanisms, and assist in the development of targeted therapies and breeding programs. Key areas of focus include genome sequencing, gene expression analysis, and the identification of genetic markers associated with specific traits or conditions. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the application and impact of bioinformatics on equine genetics, health, and breeding.
Gu W, Bertone AL.To create high-quality sequence data for the generation of an equine gene expression microarray and evaluate array performance by use of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure of synoviocytes. Methods: Public nucleotide sequence database from Equus caballus and synoviocytes from clinically normal adult horses. Methods: Computer procurement of equine gene sequences, probe design, and manufacture of an oligomicroarray were performed. Array performance was evaluated by use of patterns for equine synoviocytes in response to LPS. Results: Starting with 18,924 equine gene sequences, 3,098 equine 3' seque...
Morris BA, Sadana A.A fractal analysis is presented for the detection of pathogens such as Franscisela tularensis, Yersinia pestis (the bacterium that causes plague), Bacillus anthracis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus, Vavcinia virus, and Escherichia coli using a cellular analysis and notification of antigens risks and yields (CANARY) biosensor [T.H. Rider, M.S. Petrovic, F.E. Nargi, J.D Harper, E.D. Schwoebel, R.H. Mathews, D.J. Blanchard, L.T Bortolin, A.M. Young, J. Chen, M.A. Hollis, A cell-based sensor for rapid identification of pathogens, Science 301 (2003, 11 July) 213-215, T.H. Rider, M.S. Pe...
Drogemuller M, Schnieder T, von Samson-Himmelstjerna G.P-glycoproteins (Pgps) are adenosine triphosphate-binding transporter proteins thought to be associated with multi-drug resistance in mammals and protozoans and have been suggested to be involved in the mechanism of ivermectin (IVM) resistance in Haemonchus contortus. Until now, resistance to IVM has not been reported in cyathostomins in horses in spite of its widespread and frequent use. Reasons for this might be differences in the molecular mechanism of the development of resistance. Based on this hypothesis, the present study was carried out to find homologues of Pgp in cyathostomins. A 416...
Di Bernardo G, Del Gaudio S, Galderisi U, Cipollaro M.Ancient DNA extracted from 2000 year-old equine bones was examined in order to amplify mitochondrial and nuclear DNA fragments. A specific equine satellite-type sequence representing 3.7%-11% of the entire equine genome, proved to be a suitable target to address the question of the presence of aDNA in ancient bones. The PCR strategy designed to investigate this specific target also allowed us to calculate the molecular weight of amplifiable DNA fragments. Sequencing of a 370 bp DNA fragment of mitochondrial control region allowed the comparison of ancient DNA sequences with those of modern hor...
Sátková-Jakabová D, Trandzík J, Hudecová-Kvasnáková L, Hegedüsová-Zetochová E, Bugarský A, Buleca J, Zöldág L, Jakab F, Fl'ak P.Genetic variation at six microsatellite loci was analysed for five Thoroughbred subpopulations to determine the magnitude of genetic differentiation and the genetic relationships among the subpopulations. Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were shown for a number of locus-population combinations, with all subpopulations. The genetic diversities and relationships of five Thoroughbred subpopulations were evaluated using six microsatellites recommended by the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG). The allele frequencies, the effective numbers of alleles, and the obse...
Miller I, Friedlein A, Tsangaris G, Maris A, Fountoulakis M, Gemeiner M.We constructed a reference two-dimensional protein map for horse (Equus caballus) serum. The serum proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE); 29 different gene products were identified. Proteins represented by 25 spots/spot groups were identified by tandem nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry (MS), four by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (TOF) MS and one was sequenced by TOF-TOF technology. The identities of four proteins were deduced by similarity to the human plasma protein database. In selected cases, i.e. the immunoglobulins, immunoblotting ...
Fock U, Jockusch BM, Schubert WD, Hinssen H.The actin-binding protein gelsolin is highly conserved in vertebrates and exists in two isoforms, a cytoplasmic and an extracellular variant, generated by alternative splicing. In mammals, these isoforms differ only by an N-terminal extension in plasma gelsolin, a short sequence of up to 25 amino acids. Cells and tissues may contain both variants, as plasma gelsolin is secreted by many cell types. The tertiary structure of equine plasma gelsolin has been elucidated, but without any information on the N-terminal extension. In this paper, we present topographical data on the N-terminal extension...
May JP, Walker CA, Maskell DJ, Slater JD.Streptococcus equi subsp. equi is the causative agent of the equine disease strangles. In this study we describe the development of an in vivo Himar1 transposon system for the random mutagenesis of S. equi and, potentially, other Gram-positive bacteria. We demonstrate efficient and random transposition of a modified mini-transposon onto the chromosome by Southern blot analysis and insertion site sequencing. Non-haemolytic mutants were isolated at a frequency of 0.2%, and acapsular mutants at a frequency of 0.04%. Taken together, these data demonstrate that in vivo Himar1 mutagenesis can be use...
Luo J, Bruice TC.Molecular dynamics and cross-correlation analysis of the horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase HLADH.NAD(+).PhCH(2)O(-) complex has established anticorrelated motions between the NAD(+)-binding domain and other portions of the enzyme. Four pairs of anticorrelated interactions are (i and ii) cofactor-binding domain: C(alpha) of V292 and the CG1 of V203 with C7 of PhCH(2)O(-); (iii) cofactor-binding domain: amide carbonyl oxygen of I318 with amide N of H67; and (iv) cofactor domain: C(alpha) of T178 with carbonyl oxygen of L141. The average distances between pairs are 9.2 A for i, 8.2 A for ii, 14.7...
Puppione DL, Fischer WH, Park M, Whitelegge JP, Schumaker VN, Golfeiz S, MacDonald MH.Apolipoprotein A-II, the second major apolipoprotein of human HDL, also has been observed in a variety of mammals; however, it is either present in trace amounts or absent in other mammals. In humans and chimpanzee, and probably in other great apes, apoA-II with a cysteine at residue 6 is able to form a homodimer. In other primates as well as other mammals, apoA-II, lacking a cysteine residue, is monomeric. However, horse HDL has been reported to contain dimeric apoA-II that following reduction forms monomers. In this report, we extend these observations by reporting on the first complete sequ...
Lee SA, Willeke K, Mainelis G, Adhikari A, Wang H, Reponen T, Grinshpun SA.Bioaerosol sampling is necessary to monitor and control human exposure to harmful airborne microorganisms. An important parameter affecting the collection of airborne microorganisms is the electrical charge on the microorganisms. Using a new design of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) for bioaerosol sampling, the polarity and relative strength of the electrical charges on airborne microorganisms were determined in several laboratory and field environments by measuring the overall physical collection efficiency and the biological collection efficiency at specific precipitation voltages and po...
Paulis M, Moralli D, Bensi M, De Carli L, Raimondi E.Tigger elements are human DNA transposons homologous to the pogo element of Drosophila melanogaster. They contain an open reading frame for a transposase very similar to the major mammalian centromere protein CENP-B. We found in the horse genome a DNA element ( Ecatig3) sharing 88% homology with human Tigger3. The presence of Tigger elements in the horse genome confirms previous data that date these elements before the divergence between Perissodactyla and Primates (80-90 Myr ago). Copy number evaluation indicates that the horse element is much more abundant than its human counterpart. Souther...
Chikuni K, Muroya S, Nakajima I.Nucleotide sequences which included the full coding region for three types of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms were determined from equine skeletal muscles. The deduced amino acid sequences were 1937, 1938, and 1935 residues for the MyHC-2a, -2x, and -slow, respectively. No MyHC-2b isoform was amplified from the equine muscle cDNA except for one pseudogene fragment. One nucleotide was inserted in the coding region of the equine pseudogene product, a minute amount of which was expressed in the skeletal muscle. The 596 bp sequence of the equine MyHC pseudogene was categorized into the MyHC-2b ...
Davis EG, Sang Y, Blecha F.beta-Defensins are cysteine-rich endogenously produced antimicrobial peptides that play an important role in innate immune defense. Although, previous investigations have identified beta-defensins in several mammalian species, no reports have identified equine beta-defensins. Using a strategy of database searching for expressed sequence tags (EST) we identified putative expression of equine beta-defensins in hepatic tissue. Based on this information, sequence specific primers were designed for the equine gene enabling the identification of the full-length cDNA sequence of equine beta-defensin-...
Poloumienko A.A growing body of evidence suggests the involvement of sex chromosome genes in mammalian development. We report the cloning and characterization of the complete coding regions of the bovine Y chromosome ZFY and X chromosome ZFX genes, and partial coding regions of porcine and equine ZFX and ZFY genes. Bovine ZFY and ZFX are highly similar to each other and to ZFX and ZFY from other species. While bovine and human ZFY proteins are both 801 amino acids long, bovine ZFX is 5 amino acids shorter than human ZFX. Like in humans, both bovine ZFY and ZFX contain 13 zinc finger motifs and belong to the...
Raudsepp T, Lee EJ, Kata SR, Brinkmeyer C, Mickelson JR, Skow LC, Womack JE, Chowdhary BP.Development of a dense map of the horse genome is key to efforts aimed at identifying genes controlling health, reproduction, and performance. We herein report a high-resolution gene map of the horse (Equus caballus) X chromosome (ECAX) generated by developing and typing 116 gene-specific and 12 short tandem repeat markers on the 5,000-rad horse x hamster whole-genome radiation hybrid panel and mapping 29 gene loci by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The human X chromosome sequence was used as a template to select genes at 1-Mb intervals to develop equine orthologs. Coupled with our previou...
Anastasiou A, Hall LD.Cramer-Rao theory and computer simulations were used to show that the errors involved in calculating the magnetization and relaxation parameters of a two-component system decrease with: (1) increasing SNR, (2) increasing number of echoes used in the fitting procedure, and (3) increasing ratio of the relaxation times of the two components, T(22)/T(21). Images of bi-compartmental phantoms of known T(2) values were acquired using an optimized imaging sequence, and an optimized fitting algorithm was used to calculate the T(2) values of the two components by fitting the resulting images to a bi-exp...
Chowdhary BP, Bailey E.Analysis of the horse genome is proceeding at a rapid pace. Within a short span of 6-7 years, approximately 1,500 markers have been mapped in horse, of which at least half are genes/ESTs. Health, performance and phenotypic characteristic are of major concern/interest to horse breeders and owners. Current efforts to analyze the equine genome are primarily aimed at developing critical resources (including an advanced gene map) that could readily be used in the near future to i) identify genes and mutations responsible for inherited equine diseases/disorders and to formulate approaches for accura...
Gustafson AL, Tallmadge RL, Ramlachan N, Miller D, Bird H, Antczak DF, Raudsepp T, Chowdhary BP, Skow LC.A physical map of ordered bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones was constructed to determine the genetic organization of the horse major histocompatibility complex. Human, cattle, pig, mouse, and rat MHC gene sequences were compared to identify highly conserved regions which served as source templates for the design of overgo primers. Thirty-five overgo probes were designed from 24 genes and used for hybridization screening of the equine USDA CHORI 241 BAC library. Two hundred thirty-eight BAC clones were assembled into two contigs spanning the horse MHC region. The first contig contain...
Frazer KA, Tao H, Osoegawa K, de Jong PJ, Chen X, Doherty MF, Cox DR.Cross-species DNA sequence comparison is a fundamental method for identifying biologically important elements, because functional sequences are evolutionarily conserved, wheres nonfunctional sequences drift. A recent genome-wide comparison of human and mouse DNA discovered over 200,000 conserved noncoding sequences with unknown function. Multispecies DNA comparison has been proposed as a method to prioritize these conserved noncoding sequences for functional analysis based on the hypothesis that elements present in many species are more likely to be functional than elements present in limited ...
Farber CR, Medrano JF.In this study the flanking sequences of 1534 horse microsatellites were used in a BLAST search to identify putative human-horse homologies. BLAST searches revealed 129 flanking sequences with significant blastn matches [alignment scores (S) > or = 60 and sum probability values (E) < or = 3.0E-6], also, 25 of these produced significant blastx matches. To provide a reference point in the human genome the flanking sequences with matches were subjected to a BLAT search of the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) human genome assembly (July 2003 freeze). Eighty-three of the flanking seq...
Lee EJ, Raudsepp T, Kata SR, Adelson D, Womack JE, Skow LC, Chowdhary BP.Comparative genomics has served as a backbone for the rapid development of gene maps in domesticated animals. The integration of this approach with radiation hybrid (RH) analysis provides one of the most direct ways to obtain physically ordered comparative maps across evolutionarily diverged species. We herein report the development of a detailed RH and comparative map for horse chromosome 17 (ECA17). With markers distributed at an average interval of every 1.4 Mb, the map is currently the most informative among the equine chromosomes. It comprises 75 markers (56 genes and 19 microsatellites),...
Wagner B, Greiser-Wilke I, Antczak DF.Nucleotide sequences of the immunoglobulin constant heavy chain genes of the horse have been described for IGHM, IGHG and IGHE genes, but not for IGHA. Here, we provide the nucleotide sequence of the genomic IGHA gene of the horse ( Equus caballus), including its secretion region and the transmembrane exon. The equine IGHA gene shows the typical structure of a mammalian IGHA gene, with only three exons, separated by two introns of similar size. The hinge exon is located at the 5' end of the CH2 exon and encodes a hinge region of 11 amino acids, which contains five proline residues. The coding ...
Chen C, Montelaro RC.Synthesis of Gag-Pol polyproteins of retroviruses requires ribosomes to shift translational reading frame once or twice in a -1 direction to read through the stop codon in the gag reading frame. It is generally believed that a slippery sequence and a downstream RNA structure are required for the programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting. However, the mechanism regulating the Gag-Pol frameshifting remains poorly understood. In this report, we have defined specific mRNA elements required for sufficient ribosomal frameshifting in equine anemia infectious virus (EIAV) by using full-length provirus rep...
Kriegshäuser G, Wutz G, Lea S, Stuart D, Skern T, Kuechler E.Mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were employed to select neutralization escape mutants of equine rhinitis A virus (ERAV). Amino acid changes in the ERAV mutants resulting in resistance to neutralization were identified in capsid protein VP1 at Lys-114, Pro-240 and Thr-241. Although the changes were located in different parts of the polypeptide chain, these mutants exhibited cross-resistance against all four mAbs employed, indicating that these residues contribute to a single immunogenic site. To explain this result, we constructed a model of the three-dimensional structure of the ERAV capsid...
Mucher E, Jayr L, Rossignol F, Amiot F, Gidrol X, Barrey E.Progress could be achieved by using microarrays to understand metabolic adaptations and disorders in equine muscle in response to exercise. Objective: To test the feasibility of using mouse cDNA microarrays to analyse gene expression profile in normal equine muscles. Methods: Muscular biopsies of dorsal gluteus medius and longissimus lumborum were done in 4 healthy Standardbreds. Total RNA was extracted from the muscle samples. The concentration and quality of RNA were measured before and after amplification. Gene expression profiles were measured using mouse cDNA microarrays including 15,264 ...
Daniels S, Hepworth J, Moore-Colyer M.Respirable dust in conserved forages can pose problems with equid respiratory health, thus soaking (W) and high temperature steaming (HTS) are employed to reduce the levels in hay. The aim of this study was to characterize the viable bacterial community profile of four hays from two different locations in UK following pre-feeding wetting regimens. Hypothesis: (1) Viable microbial community profile of hays will not differ between different pre-feeding regimens. (2) Hay type and location will not influence microbial community profile. Replicates of each of the four hays were subjected to dry (D)...
Morandi L, Sabattini S, Renzi A, Rigillo A, Bettini G, Dervas E, Schauer A, Morandi M, Gissi DB, Tarsitano A, Evangelisti S, Tonon C.Ultra-conserved non-coding elements (UCNEs) are genomic sequences that exhibit > 95% sequence identity between humans, mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. Recent findings reported their functional role in cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the DNA methylation modifications of UNCEs in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from different mammal species. Fifty SCCs from 26 humans, 17 cats, 3 dogs, 1 horse, 1 bovine, 1 badger, and 1 porcupine were investigated. Fourteen feline stomatitis and normal samples from 36 healthy human donors, 7 cats, 5 dogs, 5 horses, 2 bovines and 1 badger were c...
Andrietti ALP, Durgam SS, Naumann B, Stewart M.Mesenchymal stem cells are characterized by their capacities for extensive proliferation through multiple passages and, classically, tri-lineage differentiation along osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic lineages. This study was carried out to compare osteogenesis in equine bone marrow-, synovium- and adipose-derived cells, and to determine whether osteogenic capacity is reflected in the basal expression of the critical osteogenic transcription factors Runx2 and Osterix. Unassigned: Bone marrow, synovium and adipose tissue was collected from six healthy 2-year-old horses. Cells were isolate...
Terry RR, Bailey E, Bernoco D, Cothran EG.The appaloosa coat colour pattern of the horse is similar to that caused by the rump-white (Rw) gene in the mouse. In the mouse Rw colour pattern is the result of an inversion involving the proto-oncogene c-kit (KIT). Therefore, we investigated KIT as a candidate gene that encodes the appaloosa coat colour gene (Lp) in horses. KIT plays a critical role in haematopoiesis, gametogenesis, and melanogenesis and encodes a transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor that belongs to the PDGF/CSF-1/c-KIT receptor subfamily. Half-sib families segregating for Lp were uninformative for a reported polymorphism...
Egan S, Brama P, McGrath D.Wearable sensing technologies are increasingly used in human and equine gait research to improve ecological validity of research findings. It is unclear how these tools have penetrated the equine industry or what perspectives industry stakeholders' hold in relation to these relatively new devices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Irish equine industry stakeholders to understand their perception of objective tools for biomechanical analysis in the field. The study participants came from professional/elite backgrounds in both the sport horse ( = 6) and thoroughbred ( = 6) sectors. ...
Müller-Schöttle F, Bogusz A, Grötzinger J, Herrler A, Krusche CA, Beier-Hellwig K, Beier HM.After its original description as a steroid-dependent protein in the rabbit uterus, uteroglobin became one of the best characterized proteins. However, detailed knowledge of its physiological role remains an enigma. In this study we investigate how its structure is phylogenetically conserved in the horse compared to other mammalian species. Northern blot analysis showed that in horses, the main expression of uteroglobin appears in lung, uterus, and prostate tissues. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the dimeric form of uteroglobin is found predominantly in biological compartments. Using ...
Klett D, Combarnous Y.In previous studies, we had shown the synergistic effect of 10 M forskolin (FSK) on the detection threshold of the cyclic AMP response to luteinizing hormones (LH) and chorionic gonadotropins (CG) from various species in the mouse Leydig tumor cell (mLTC) cell line. Independently, we started to study the effect of 10-10 M oxytocin (OXT) also on the cyclic AMP response to LH and CG preparations on these same cells and found an amplifying effect on the luminescence response caused by gonadotropins. The aim was then to explore the effects of 10-10 M OXT on the gonadotropin-induced cAMP response, ...
Böske J, Wirth B, Garlipp F, Mumme J, Van den Weghe H.Aim of this study was to investigate the use of upflow anaerobic solid-state (UASS) digestion for treating horse manure. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests conducted for varying mixtures of dung (hay and silage feed) and bedding material (wheat straw, flax, hemp, wood chips) showed that straw mixed with hay horse dung has the highest potential of [Formula: see text] . Continuous mesophilic digestion was conducted for 238 days using a single-stage UASS reactor (27 L) and a two-stage UASS system with an anaerobic filter (AF, 21 L). Increasing the organic loading rate (OLR) from 2.5 to 4.5...
Liu X, Mawolo JB, Du X, Zhou Y, Wang H, Liu F, He Z, Marela HA.The Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is a critically endangered species, and there has been limited success in restoring the population by captive breeding. This study assessed the biochemical and physiological parameters of newborn Saiga antelope to provide reference information that can be used to evaluate their health. Comparisons have been made with parameters for horses and closely related members of the Bovidae family but there are no reference values for the newborn Saiga antelope. Biochemical and physiological parameters were measured in 61 animals. An automatic analyzer (Hitachi Ltd. 7...
Dahl CD, Wyss C, Zuberbühler K, Bachmann I.One model of signal evolution is based on the notion that behaviours become increasingly detached from their original biological functions to obtain a communicative value. Selection may not always favour the evolution of such transitions, for instance, if signalling is costly due to predators usurping signal production. Here, we collected inertial movement sensing data recorded from multiple locations in free-ranging horses (Equus caballus), which we subjected to a machine learning algorithm to extract kinematic gestalt profiles. This yielded surprisingly rich and multi-layered sets of informa...
Savelberg HH, Van Loon T, Schamhardt HC.An artificial neural network (ANN) was developed to investigate whether hoof wall deformation could be used to determine ground reaction forces (GRF) in horses. The ANN was taught this relationship under certain conditions and was able to generalise this knowledge to conditions for which it was not trained before. To acquire data to train and test the ANN, a horse was equipped with strain gauges attached to the dorsal, lateral and medial parts of the hoof to assess hoof wall deformation. A force plate was used to measure the GRFs. Both hoof wall deformation and GRF were recorded simultaneously...
Navas C, Manso T, Martins F, Minto L, Moreira R, Minozzo J, Antunes B, Vale A, McDaniel JR, Ippolito GC, Felicori LF.The antibody repertoire (Rep-seq) sequencing revolutionized the diversity of antigen B cell receptor studies, allowing deep and quantitative analysis to decipher the role of adaptive immunity in health and disease. Particularly, horse (Equus caballus) polyclonal antibodies have been produced and used since the century XIX to treat and prophylaxis diphtheria, tuberculosis, tetanus, pneumonia, and, more recently, COVID-19. However, our knowledge about the horse B cell receptors repertories is minimal. We present a deep horse antibody heavy chain repertoire (IGH) characterization of non-infected ...
Murase H, El-Sheikh Ali H, Ruby RE, Scoggin KE, Ball BA.Equine premature placental separation (PPS) is poorly understood and represents an important risk factor for fetal/neonatal hypoxia. Objective: To examine transcriptomic changes in the chorioallantois (CA) from mares with clinical PPS compared with the CA from normal foaling mares. Differential gene expression was determined and gene ontology as well as molecular pathways related to PPS were characterised. Methods: Retrospective case: control study. Methods: CA were collected from Thoroughbred mares with a clinical history of PPS (n = 33) and from control Thoroughbred mares (n = 4) with no...
Poloumienko A.A growing body of evidence suggests the involvement of sex chromosome genes in mammalian development. We report the cloning and characterization of the complete coding regions of the bovine Y chromosome ZFY and X chromosome ZFX genes, and partial coding regions of porcine and equine ZFX and ZFY genes. Bovine ZFY and ZFX are highly similar to each other and to ZFX and ZFY from other species. While bovine and human ZFY proteins are both 801 amino acids long, bovine ZFX is 5 amino acids shorter than human ZFX. Like in humans, both bovine ZFY and ZFX contain 13 zinc finger motifs and belong to the...
Senju N, Tozaki T, Kakoi H, Matsuyama R, Nakamura K, Takasu M.The Miyako and Yonaguni horses are native horses in Okinawa. Here, we evaluated their genetic relationship using microsatellite data and Kiso horses, which have four subpopulations, as a reference population for evaluating this relationship. Microsatellite data from 35 Miyako, 78 Yonaguni, and 172 Kiso horses were evaluated using the STRUCTURE software for analyzing multilocus genotype data to investigate the population structures and their underlying relationship. The results of the STRUCTURE analysis were stable when ΔK was 2, suggesting that the Okinawan horses are different from the Kiso ...
Kumar J, Chaudhury A, Bera BC, Kumar R, Kumar R, Tatu U, Yadav SC.The present immuno-diagnostic method using soluble antigens from whole cell lysate antigen for trypanosomosis have certain inherent problems like lack of standardized and reproducible antigens, as well as ethical issues due to in vivo production, that could be alleviated by in vitro production. In the present study we have identified heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) from T. evansi proteome. The nucleotide sequence of T. evansi HSP70 was 2116 bp, which encodes 690 amino acid residues. The phylogenetic analysis of T. evansi HSP70 showed that T. evansi occurred within Trypanosoma clade and is most c...
Khoshtariya DE, Dolidze TD, Shushanyan M, van Eldik R.Horse muscle myoglobin (Mb) was tightly immobilized at Au-deposited ~15-Å-thick mixed-type (1:1) alkanethiol SAMs, HS-(CH₂)₁₁-COOH/HS-(CH₂)₁₁-OH, and placed in contact with buffered H₂O or D₂O solutions. Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (CV) and a Marcus-equation-based analysis were applied to determine unimolecular standard rate constants and reorganization free energies for electron transfer (ET), under variable-temperature (15-55 °C) and -pressure (0.01-150 MPa) conditions. The CV signal was surprisingly stable and reproducible even after multiple temperature and pressure cycl...
Nixon AJ, Brower-Toland BD, Sandell LJ.To isolate, clone, and determine primary nucleotide sequence of equine insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and to examine IGF-I gene expression in tissues and cartilage from horses. Methods: Horses of various ages. Methods: Total RNA was isolated from tissues and purified. Complementary DNA (cDNA) was derived by reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and subcloned to plasmid vectors for sequencing and comparison with other species. Total RNA from various tissues was probed with radiolabeled cDNA or complimentary RNA constructs by use of northern blotting, tube...
Deng L, Li Z, Tang C, Han Y, Zhang L, Liao Q.Equine pregnancy is currently diagnosed by rectal palpation, ultrasonographic examination, or by measuring changes in hormones in the blood. In the present study, we identified proteins that are differentially expressed in the sera of early pregnant and non-pregnant mares in order to develop a novel method for diagnosing equine pregnancy. Serum samples were obtained from 18 adult mares, pregnancy at day 32 after ovulation (n = 9) and in diestrus (n = 9). Proteomic analysis of the samples was conducted using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. We iden...
Miclo L, Girardet JM, Egito AS, Mollé D, Martin P, Gaillard JL.Highly phosphorylated casein with a low molecular mass was isolated from Haflinger mare's milk by RP-HPLC. It accounts for 4.0% of the casein content. Its mass was determined by LC-ESI-MS before and after treatment by alkaline phosphatase. The molecular mass found for the apo-form (10,591 +/- 2 Da) is in agreement with its primary structure, which was established by ESI-MS/MS from tryptic peptides. It appeared that this short protein (94 amino acid residues) is an internally truncated form of the full-length equine beta-casein (226 residues). This low-Mr variant of equine beta-casein displays ...
El-Sheikh Ali H, Scoggin K, Murase H, Norris J, Menarim B, Dini P, Ball B.The equine chorioallantois (CA) undergoes complex physical and biochemical changes during labor. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling these changes are still unclear. Therefore, the current study aimed to characterize the transcriptome of equine CA during spontaneous labor and compare it with that of normal preterm CA. Placental samples were collected postpartum from mares with normal term labor (TL group, n = 4) and from preterm not in labor mares (330 days GA; PTNL group, n = 4). Our study identified 4137 differentially expressed genes (1820 upregulated and 2317 downregulat...
Keegan KG, Arafat S, Skubic M, Wilson DA, Kramer J, Messer NM, Johnson PJ, O'Brien DP, Johnson G.Subjective neurological evaluation in horses is prone to bias. An objective method of spinal ataxia detection is not subject to these limitations and could be of use in equine practice and research. Objective: Kinematic data in the walking horse can differentiate normal and spinal ataxic horses. Methods: Twelve normal and 12 spinal ataxic horses were evaluated by kinematic analysis walking on a treadmill. Each body position signal was reduced to a scalar measure of uncertainty then fuzzy clustered into normal or ataxic groups. Correct classification percentage (CCP) was then calculated using m...
Quam VG, Altmann NN, Brokken MT, Durgam SS.Intrasynovial deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) injuries occur frequently and are often implicated in cases of navicular disease with poor outcomes and reinjuries. Cell-based approaches to tendon healing are gaining traction in veterinary medicine and ultimately may contribute to improved DDFT healing in horses. However, a better understanding of the innate cellular characteristics of equine DDFT is necessary for developing improved therapeutic strategies. Additionally, fibrocartilaginous, intrasynovial tendons like the DDFT are common sites of injury and share a poor prognosis across species,...
Kuehn R, Kaczensky P, Lkhagvasuren D, Pietsch S, Walzer C.Recent studies suggest that Asiatic wild asses (Equus hemionus) are being increasingly poached in a commercial fashion. Part of the meat is believed to reach the meat markets in the capital Ulaanbaatar. To test this hypothesis, we collected 500 meat samples between February and May 2006. To differentiate between domestic horse (Equus caballus) and wild ass meat, we developed a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We amplified and sequenced a cytochrome b fragment (335 bp) and carried out a multialignment of the generated sequences ...
Miteva MA, Kossekova GP, Villoutreix BO, Atanasov BP.The present work shows the application of an optical label pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) for the experimental determination of local electrostatic potentials in singly substituted cytochromes c modified by pyridoxal phosphate at Lys 79 (PLP-Lys-79-cyt.c) or at Lys 86 (PLP-Lys-86-cyt.c). PLP has also been used to calculate the pKa values of all ionizable groups and the electrostatic potentials in the modified proteins and to analyse their properties. The experimental pKa values for the pyridine nitrogen and phenolic hydroxyl of the bound label were obtained from pH-dependent absorbance and fluoresc...
Richard F, Martinat N, Remy JJ, Salesse R, Combarnous Y.Among all mammalian FSH receptors (FSH-R; including donkey (dk) FSH-R), only horse (hs) FSH-R does not bind hsLH/chorionic gonadotrophin (CG). In order to delineate the structural origin of hsFSH-R specificity precisely, we have cloned dkFSH-R cDNA from donkey testis mRNA by RT-PCR. Transiently expressed dkFSH-R endowed COS-7 cells with both hsLH/CG- and FSH-binding activity, as well as FSH-induced cAMP production. The deduced dkFSH-R amino acid sequence shares 96% identity with the hsFSH-R: notably, in the hormone-binding domain, the specificity of hsFSH-R may be ascribed to only four diverge...
Ward RJ, Ramsey M, Dickson DP, Hunt C, Douglas T, Mann S, Aquad F, Peters TJ, Crichton RR.The biochemical and biophysical properties of isolated haemosiderins have been compared to that of another iron-containing protein, termed prehaemosiderin, which sediments through chaotropic potassium iodide only after 20 h of ultracentrifugation, in contrast to that of haemosiderin which is recovered after 2 h of ultracentrifugation. The iron/protein ratio and iron/phosphate ratio were less that that of the corresponding haemosiderin, while the elemental composition was also reduced in many of the prehaemosiderin samples. Mossbauer spectroscopy and electron diffraction identified the predomin...
Tikhonov VN, Cothran EG, Kniazev SP.This study was the first to analyze the polymorphic characteristics of a wide range of biochemical markers in aboriginal Yakut horses. A total of 124 alleles, including 48 alleles of seven blood-group loci and 76 alleles of ten loci for enzymes and other proteins, were studied. For these polymorphic systems, a computer analysis of the genetic distances between 85 horse breeds of different origin from all parts of the world was performed. The low level of hereditary variation in the Yakut horses confirmed that this breed is old and has long been an isolated population. Phylogenetic analysis dem...
Gim JA, Kim HS.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded, small RNAs (21-23 nucleotides) that function in gene silencing and translational inhibition via the RNA interference mechanism. Most miRNAs originate from host genomic regions, such as intergenic regions, introns, exons, and transposable elements (TEs). Here, we focused on the palindromic structure of medium reiteration frequencies (MERs), which are similar to precursor miRNAs. Five MER consensus sequences (MER5A1, MER53, MER81, MER91C, and MER117) were matched with paralogous transcripts predicted to be precursor miRNAs in the horse genome (equCab2) and...
