Genes in horses are segments of DNA that encode the biological instructions necessary for the development, functioning, and reproduction of equine species. These genetic sequences influence a wide range of traits, including coat color, speed, endurance, and susceptibility to diseases. Genetic research in horses focuses on identifying specific genes and genetic markers associated with these traits, as well as understanding the inheritance patterns and genetic diversity within and between horse breeds. Studies in equine genetics contribute to breeding programs, disease prevention strategies, and the overall understanding of horse biology. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the identification, function, and implications of genes in equine health and performance.
Wang D, Zeng J, Wujin C, Ullah Q, Su Z.Diarrhea is a prevalent health issue in farmed animals and poses a significant challenge to the progress of animal husbandry. Recent evidence suggested that probiotics can alleviate diarrhea by maintaining gut microbial balance and enhancing the integrity of the intestinal barrier. However, there is a scarcity of studies investigating the efficacy of equine Lactobacillus reuteri in relieving E. coli-induced diarrhea. Hence, this study aims to examine the potential of equine-derived Lactobacillus reuteri in alleviating E. coli diarrhea from the perspective of gut microbiota. Results demonstrate...
Gravey F, Sévin C, Castagnet S, Foucher N, Maillard K, Tapprest J, Léon A, Langlois B, Le Hello S, Petry S.Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major cause of infections and reproductive disorders among horses, ranked in recent French studies as the sixth most frequently isolated bacterial pathogen in equine clinical samples. The proportion of multidrug-resistant (MDR) K. pneumoniae is therefore significant in a context where MDR K. pneumoniae strains are considered a major global concern by the World Health Organization. Unassigned: In this study, we used a genomic approach to characterize a population of 119 equine K. pneumoniae strains collected by two laboratories specialized in animal health in Normandy...
Sage SE, Leeb T, Jagannathan V, Gerber V.Severe equine asthma (SEA) is a complex respiratory condition characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It shares many clinical and pathological features with human neutrophilic asthma, making it a valuable model for studying this condition. However, the immune mechanisms driving SEA have remained elusive. Although SEA has been primarily associated with a Th2 response, there have also been reports of Th1, Th17, or mixed-mediated responses. To uncover the elusive immune mechanisms driving SEA, we performed single-cell mRNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on cryopreserved bronchoalveolar cells from 1...
Palomino Lago E, Baird A, Blott SC, McPhail RE, Ross AC, Durward-Akhurst SA, Guest DJ.Fractures caused by bone overloading are a leading cause of euthanasia in Thoroughbred racehorses. The risk of fatal fracture has been shown to be influenced by both environmental and genetic factors but, to date, no specific genetic mechanisms underpinning fractures have been identified. In this study, we utilised a genome-wide polygenic risk score to establish an in vitro cell system to study bone gene regulation in horses at high and low genetic risk of fracture. Candidate gene expression analysis revealed differential expression of and genes in osteoblasts derived from high- and low-risk...
Shen Y, Ulaangerel T, Ren H, Liu Q, Davshilt T, Yi M, Dugarjaviin M, Bou G.The reproductive cycle of equines tends to be seasonal and is influenced by factors such as light and temperature. The process and methods of regulating the mare oestrous cycle in the anestrus period are still immature. The effects of noncoding RNAs and mRNAs on the oestrous cycle have aroused much interest, but corresponding analyses of seasonal mare ovaries have not been reported. Here, we report a whole transcriptome analysis of the Mongolian horse ovarian cortex collected in anestrus and diestrus periods. In total, 1081 mRNAs, 205 lncRNAs, 54 circRNAs, and 13 miRNAs were upregulated in win...
Herman M, Caceres AM, Albuquerque ALH, Leite RO, Araújo CET, Delfiol DJZ, Curi RA, Borges AS, Oliveira-Filho JP.In Brazil, the production of mules with a comfortable gait primarily involves the breeding of marching saddle mules. This is achieved by crossing gaited Pêga donkeys with horses from the Mangalarga Marchador and Campolina breeds. The :g.22999655C>A SNP is implicated in regulating gait phenotypes observed in various horse breeds, including the batida (CC) and picada (CA) gaits found in these horse breeds. We aimed to determine if genotypes influenced gait type in 159 mules and 203 donkeys genotyped for the SNP by PCR-RFLP analysis. About 47% of mules had the CC-genotype, while 53% had the ...
Vigolo V, Gautier C, Ertl R, Aurich C, Falomo ME.Subfertility is one of the main issues in horse breeding and the study of mRNAs in sperm might help in elucidating the reasons that lead to this diagnosis. The present study aims at assessing the differences in the expression of 10 potential candidate genes in stallions of different fertility. Frozen-thawed semen of 29 stallions was included. Each sample was classified into two groups according to pregnancy rates (PR) achieved with this semen: "good fertility" (GF; n = 17; PR ≥ 30 %) or "poor fertility" (PF; n = 12; PR <20 %). All stallions underwent a breeding soundness examination ...
Sigurðardóttir H, Boije H, Albertsdóttir E, Kristjansson T, Rhodin M, Lindgren G, Eriksson S.In domesticated animals, many important traits are complex and regulated by a large number of genes, genetic interactions, and environmental influences. The ability of Icelandic horses to perform the gait 'pace' is largely influenced by a single mutation in the DMRT3 gene, but genetic modifiers likely exist. The aim of this study was to identify novel genetic factors that influence pacing ability and quality of the gait through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and correlate new findings to previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) and mutations. Results: Three hundred and seven...
Alhaddad H, Powell BB, Pinto LD, Sutter N, Brooks SA, Alhajeri BH.Horse traits under selection are largely quantitative and affected by multiple genes. Horse face shape is an example of a continuous trait, which due to the reliance on observational assessments, is classified into; "dished", "straight", and "roman-nosed". This categorization is often inadequate to convey the full spectrum of the face shape variation especially for genetic studies. The first objective of the current study was to use geometric morphometric methods to quantitatively phenotype face shapes and examine its variation across horse breeds. The second objective was to analyze the face ...
Robles M, Rousseau-Ralliard D, Dubois C, Josse T, Nouveau É, Dahirel M, Wimel L, Couturier-Tarrade A, Chavatte-Palmer P.In horses, the prevalence of obesity is high and associated with serious metabolic pathologies. Being a broodmare has been identified as a risk factor for obesity. In other species, maternal obesity is known to affect the development of the offspring. This article is a follow-up study of previous work showing that Obese mares (O, n = 10, body condition score > 4.25 at insemination) were more insulin resistant and presented increased systemic inflammation during pregnancy compared to Normal mares (N, n = 14, body condition score < 4 at insemination). Foals born to O mares were more insulin-resi...
Tang X, Zhu B, Ren R, Chen B, Li S, Gu J.Understanding how genetic variants alter phenotypes is an essential aspect of genetic research. Copy number variations (CNVs), a type of prevalent genetic variation in the genome, have been the subject of extensive study for decades. Numerous CNVs have been identified and linked to specific phenotypes and diseases in horses. However, few studies utilizing whole-genome sequencing to detect CNVs in large horse populations have been conducted. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing on a large cohort of 97 horses from 16 horse populations using Illumina Hiseq panels to detect common and breed-...
Ma Y, Peng S, Donnelly CG, Ghosh S, Miller AD, Woolard K, Finno CJ.Equine neuroaxonal dystrophy/equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy (eNAD/EDM) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder associated with vitamin E deficiency. In humans, polymorphisms in genes involved in vitamin E uptake and distribution determines individual vitamin E requirements. Objective: Genetic polymorphisms in genes involved in vitamin E metabolism would be associated with an increased risk of eNAD/EDM in Quarter Horses (QHs). Methods: Whole-genome sequencing: eNAD/EDM affected (n = 9, postmortem [PM]-confirmed) and control (n = 32) QHs. Results: eNAD/EDM affected (n = 3...
Armando F, Porcellato I, de Paolis L, Mecocci S, Passeri B, Ciurkiewicz M, Mechelli L, Grazia De Ciucis C, Pezzolato M, Fruscione F, Brachelente C....Vulvo-vaginal epithelial tumors are uncommon in mares, and data on the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME) are still lacking. This is a study investigating the equus caballus papillomavirus type 2 (EcPV2) infection state as well as the EMT process and the tumor microenvironment in vulvo-vaginal preneoplastic/ benign (8/22) or malignant (14/22) epithelial lesions in mares. To do this, histopathological, immunohistochemical, transcriptomic, hybridization, and correlation analyses were carried out. Immunohistochemistry quantification showed tha...
Cappelli K, Mecocci S, Porceddu A, Albertini E, Giontella A, Miglio A, Silvestrelli M, Verini Supplizi A, Marconi G, Capomaccio S.With his bicentennial breeding history based on athletic performance, the Thoroughbred horse can be considered the equine sport breed. Although genomic and transcriptomic tools and knowledge are at the state of the art in equine species, the epigenome and its modifications in response to environmental stimuli, such as training, are less studied. One of the major epigenetic modifications is cytosine methylation at 5' of DNA molecules. This crucial biochemical modification directly mediates biological processes and, to some extent, determines the organisms' phenotypic plasticity. Exercise indeed...
Gossett CL, Guyer D, Hein J, Brooks SA.White spotting is an iconic feature of the American Paint Horse. The American Paint Horse Association (APHA) is dedicated to recording pedigree and performance of this stock-type breed, while preserving its distinctive coat color and conformation. Here, the depigmented proportion of the coat (% white coat) was measured using digital photograph analysis of 1195 registered American Paint Horses. Genotypes for nine white-spotting polymorphisms commonly found in Paint Horses, and two pigment-producing loci and genes, were also provided by the APHA. White-coat percent significantly increased in h...
Chien RC, Mingqun L, Yan Q, Randolph N, Huang W, Wellman M, Toribio R, Rikihisa Y.The tick-borne obligatory intracellular bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum infects humans as well as domesticated and wild animals, causing a febrile disease collectively called granulocytic anaplasmosis. The epidemiology and the host species specificity and zoonotic potential of A. phagocytophilum strains remain unclear. In this study, ankA (encoding ankyrin A) and p44 gene sequences of A. phagocytophilum were determined in clinical specimens from horses in Ohio and compared with those found in A. phagocytophilum strains from various hosts and geographic regions. With increasing numbers of s...
Stejskalova K, Janova E, Splichalova P, Futas J, Oppelt J, Vodicka R, Horin P.Toll-like receptors (TLRs) represent an important part of the innate immune system. While human and murine TLRs have been intensively studied, little is known about TLRs in non-model species. The order Perissodactyla comprises a variety of free-living and domesticated species exposed to different pathogens in different habitats and is therefore suitable for analyzing the diversity and evolution of immunity-related genes. We analyzed TLR genes in the order Perissodactyla with a focus on the family Equidae. Twelve TLRs were identified by bioinformatic analyses of online genomic resources; their ...
Reißmann M, Rajavel A, Kokov ZA, Schmitt AO.RNA sequencing makes it possible to uncover genetic mechanisms that underlie certain performance traits. In order to gain a deeper insight into the genetic background and biological processes involved in endurance performance in horses, the changes in the gene expression profiles induced by endurance runs over long (70 km) and short (15 km) distances in the blood of Kabardian horses () were analyzed. For the long-distance runs, we identified 1484 up- and 691 downregulated genes, while after short-distance runs, only 13 up- and 8 downregulated genes (FC > |1.5|; < 0.05) were found. These...
Yang G, Sun M, Wang Z, Hu Q, Guo J, Yu J, Lei C, Dang R.Species within the genus are valued for their draft ability. Skeletal muscle forms the foundation of the draft ability of species; however, skeletal muscle development-related conserved genes and their target miRNAs are rarely reported for . In this study, a comparative genomics analysis was performed among five species (horse, donkey, zebra, cattle, and goat), and the results showed that a total of 15,262 (47.43%) genes formed the core gene set of the five species. Only nine chromosomes (Chr01, Chr02, Chr03, Chr06, Chr10, Chr18, Chr22, Chr27, Chr29, and Chr30) exhibited a good collinearity ...
Scantamburlo G, Nofziger C, Paulmichl M, Vanoni S.Because of their importance as companion animals or as racehorses, horses can be treated with various drugs. Although it is known that drug withdrawal times can vary for each horse, pharmacogenetics for these animals has not been adequately studied and requires further development. Since is responsible for the metabolism of 25-30% of drugs in humans, including some used to treat horses, a study of the family in horses was conducted to define its genetic structure as well as its expression pattern in the liver. Unassigned: Genomic DNA extracted from venous blood and mRNA from fresh liver tiss...
Sun W, Yin Q, Wan H, Gao R, Xiong C, Xie C, Meng X, Mi Y, Wang X, Wang C, Chen W, Xie Z, Xue Z, Yao H, Sun P, Xie X, Hu Z, Nelson DR, Xu Z, Sun X....Horse chestnut (Aesculus chinensis) is an important medicinal tree that contains various bioactive compounds, such as aescin, barrigenol-type triterpenoid saponins (BAT), and aesculin, a glycosylated coumarin. Herein, we report a 470.02 Mb genome assembly and characterize an Aesculus-specific whole-genome duplication event, which leads to the formation and duplication of two triterpenoid biosynthesis-related gene clusters (BGCs). We also show that AcOCS6, AcCYP716A278, AcCYP716A275, and AcCSL1 genes within these two BGCs along with a seed-specific expressed AcBAHD6 are responsible for the fo...
Choudhury MP, Wang Z, Zhu M, Teng S, Yan J, Cao S, Yi G, Liu Y, Liao Y, Tang Z.Copy number variations (CNVs) are crucial structural genomic variants affecting complex traits in humans and livestock animals. The current study was designed to conduct a comprehensive comparative copy number variation analysis among three breeds, Debao (DB), Baise (BS), and Warmblood (WB), with a specific focus on identifying genomic regions associated with miniature features in horses. Using whole-genome next-generation resequencing data, we identified 18,974 CNVs across 31 autosomes. Among the breeds, we found 4279 breed-specific CNV regions (CNVRs). Baise, Debao, and Warmblood displayed 2...
Perdomo-González DI, Id-Lahoucine S, Molina A, Cánovas A, Laseca N, Azor PJ, Valera M.Transmission Ratio Distortion (TRD) is a genetic phenomenon widely demonstrated in several livestock species, but barely in equine species. The TRD occurs when certain genotypes are over- or under-represented in the offspring of a particular mating and can be caused by a variety of factors during gamete formation or during embryonic development. For this study, 126 394 trios consisting of a stallion, mare, and offspring were genotyped using a panel of 17 neutral microsatellite markers recommended by the International Society for Animal Genetics for paternity tests and individual identification...
Pechanec MY, Mienaltowski MJ.Equine tendinopathies are challenging because of the poor healing capacity of tendons commonly resulting in high re-injury rates. Within the tendon, different regions - tendon proper (TP) and peritenon (PERI) - contribute to the tendon matrix in differing capacities during injury and aging. Aged tendons have decreased repair potential; the underlying transcriptional and epigenetic changes that occur in the TP and PERI regions are not well understood. The objective of this study was to assess TP and PERI regional differences in adolescent, midlife, and geriatric horses using RNA sequencing and ...
Li S, Guo K, Wang X, Lin Y, Wang J, Wang Y, Du C, Hu Z, Wang X.Equine infectious anemia (EIA) has a worldwide distribution and causes severe economic losses to the equine industry. The EIA virus (EIAV) genome sequences from different countries are highly diverse, which poses a great challenge for pathogen identification with PCR. Phylogenetic analysis showed that although gag is the most conserved structural gene, it still has great genome variability. Currently, most existing PCR methods are designed based on the gag gene sequence and therefore do not cover all the viral strains, especially Asian EIAV strains. In this study, we developed a tat-gag-based ...
Barnabé MA, Elliott J, Harris PA, Menzies-Gow NJ.Hypoadiponectinaemia is a risk factor for endocrinopathic laminitis, but the directionality and nature of its association with insulin dysregulation is unclear. Objective: To investigate the effects of short-term induced hyperinsulinaemia and dexamethasone challenge on circulating [total adiponectin] and whole blood expression of adiponectin (AdipoR1 and AdipoR2), insulin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) receptors in insulin-sensitive ponies. Methods: In vivo experiment. Methods: Six never-laminitic, insulin-sensitive, native-breed UK ponies first underwent a dexamethasone challenge (...
Braga PRC, Dos Santos CA, Bertani AMJ, Vieira T, Amarante AF, Reis AD, Sacchi CT, Camargo CH, Ribeiro MG, Borges AS, Tiba-Casas MR.This study reports the genomic characterization of the multidrug resistant Salmonella Newport strain 195_20 recovered from the diarrheic faeces of a foal in Brazil and co-harbouring the mcr-9, blaCMY-2 and qnrB19 antibiotic resistance genes. Bacterial isolate positive for mobile colistin resistance gene (mcr-9) was submitted to antimicrobial susceptibility testing by disk diffusion and broth microdilution for colistin and polymyxin B. The isolate was submitted to whole genome sequencing by Illumina technology and Nanopore Sequencing. Conjugation assays, plasmid sizes determined by S1-PFGE and ...
Szóstek-Mioduchowska A, Wójtowicz A, Sadowska A, Moza Jalali B, Słyszewska M, Łukasik K, Gurgul A, Szmatoła T, Bugno-Poniewierska M....In the current study, transcriptome profiles of mare endometrium, classified into categories I, IIA, and IIB according to Kenney and Doig, were compared using RNA sequencing, analyzed, and functionally annotated using in silico analysis. In the mild stage (IIA) of endometrosis compared to category I endometrium, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were annotated to inflammation, abnormal metabolism, wound healing, and quantity of connective tissue. In the moderate stage (IIB) of endometrosis compared to category I endometrium, DEGs were annotated to inflammation, fibrosis, cellular home...
Gregg SR, Barshick MR, Johnson SE.Following strenuous exercise, skeletal muscle experiences an acute inflammatory state that initiates the repair process. Systemic hyaluronic acid (HA) is injected to horses routinely as a joint anti-inflammatory. To gain insight into the effects of HA on skeletal muscle, adult Thoroughbred geldings (n = 6) were injected with a commercial HA product weekly for 3 weeks prior to performing a submaximal exercise test. Gluteal muscle (GM) biopsies were obtained before and 1 h after exercise for gene expression analysis and HA localization. The results from RNA sequencing demonstrate differences in ...
Jung HS, Yun JU, Jung MJ, Song HS, Kim YB, Kim Y, Kim JG, Jeon CO, Roh SW, Whon TW, Lee SH.A novel, anaerobic, Gram-stain-positive coccoid strain, CBA3646, was isolated from the faeces of a thoroughbred racehorse. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing yielded results indicative of CBA3646 representing a member of the genus , with the species most closely related to it being DSM 20463, with a similarity of 94.79 %. DNA-DNA relatedness and average nucleotide identity values between CBA3646 and DSM 20463 were 21.4 and 67.6 %, respectively. CBA3646 has a circular chromosomal genome of 1 709 189 bp (45.5 mol% DNA G+C content), containing 1652 genes in tota...
Browning GF, Chalmers RM, Fitzgerald TA, Snodgrass DR.A group A rotavirus designated L338 was isolated from the faeces of a diarrhoeic foal and was compared to 11 standard G serotype strains of group A rotaviruses by cross-neutralization. It was clearly distinct from serotypes G1 to G11 and thus representative of a novel rotavirus G serotype tentatively designated G13. The nucleic acid sequence of the virion protein 7 (VP7) coding region was determined and the deduced amino acid sequence compared to published sequences. Within VP7 regions A and B, L338 was clearly distinct from serotypes G1 to G12 (excluding G7 which has not been sequenced), but ...
DebRoy C, Maddox CW.The pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli recovered from the intestinal tract of animals fall into categories called enterotoxigenic, enteropathogenic, enterohemorrhagic and necrotoxigenic. The other two categories, enteroinvasive and enteroaggregative, have not been reported in animals. The pathogenicity of these strains is determined by the presence of certain genes that encode adhesins and toxins, are generally organized in large blocks in chromosomes, large plasmids or phages, and are often transmitted horizontally between strains. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of the vir...
Kappmeyer LS, Thiagarajan M, Herndon DR, Ramsay JD, Caler E, Djikeng A, Gillespie JJ, Lau AO, Roalson EH, Silva JC, Silva MG, Suarez CE, Ueti MW....Transmission of arthropod-borne apicomplexan parasites that cause disease and result in death or persistent infection represents a major challenge to global human and animal health. First described in 1901 as Piroplasma equi, this re-emergent apicomplexan parasite was renamed Babesia equi and subsequently Theileria equi, reflecting an uncertain taxonomy. Understanding mechanisms by which apicomplexan parasites evade immune or chemotherapeutic elimination is required for development of effective vaccines or chemotherapeutics. The continued risk of transmission of T. equi from clinically silent,...
Peffers M, Liu X, Clegg P.Age is an important factor in the development of osteoarthritis. Microarray studies provide insight into cartilage aging but do not reveal the full transcriptomic phenotype of chondrocytes such as small noncoding RNAs, pseudogenes, and microRNAs. RNA-Seq is a powerful technique for the interrogation of large numbers of transcripts including nonprotein coding RNAs. The aim of the study was to characterise molecular mechanisms associated with age-related changes in gene signatures. Methods: RNA for gene expression analysis using RNA-Seq and real-time PCR analysis was isolated from macroscopicall...
Doan R, Cohen N, Harrington J, Veazey K, Juras R, Cothran G, McCue ME, Skow L, Dindot SV.Copy number variants (CNVs) represent a substantial source of genetic variation in mammals. However, the occurrence of CNVs in horses and their subsequent impact on phenotypic variation is unknown. We performed a study to identify CNVs in 16 horses representing 15 distinct breeds (Equus caballus) and an individual gray donkey (Equus asinus) using a whole-exome tiling array and the array comparative genomic hybridization methodology. We identified 2368 CNVs ranging in size from 197 bp to 3.5 Mb. Merging identical CNVs from each animal yielded 775 CNV regions (CNVRs), involving 1707 protein- and...
Haase B, Brooks SA, Tozaki T, Burger D, Poncet PA, Rieder S, Hasegawa T, Penedo C, Leeb T.White coat colour in horses is inherited as a monogenic autosomal dominant trait showing a variable expression of coat depigmentation. Mutations in the KIT gene have previously been shown to cause white coat colour phenotypes in pigs, mice and humans. We recently also demonstrated that four independent mutations in the equine KIT gene are responsible for the dominant white coat colour phenotype in various horse breeds. We have now analysed additional horse families segregating for white coat colour phenotypes and report seven new KIT mutations in independent Thoroughbred, Icelandic Horse, Germ...
Mariat D, Taourit S, Guérin G.In horses, basic colours such as bay or chestnut may be partially diluted to buckskin and palomino, or extremely diluted to cream, a nearly white colour with pink skin and blue eyes. This dilution is expected to be controlled by one gene and we used both candidate gene and positional cloning strategies to identify the "cream mutation". A horse panel including reference colours was established and typed for different markers within or in the neighbourhood of two candidate genes. Our data suggest that the causal mutation, a G to A transition, is localised in exon 2 of the MATP gene leading to an...
Barrachina L, Remacha AR, Romero A, Vitoria A, Albareda J, Prades M, Roca M, Zaragoza P, Vázquez FJ, Rodellar C.This study aimed at assessing the effectiveness and safety of repeated administrations of allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) primed with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon-γ in an equine model of chemically-induced osteoarthritis. Arthritis was induced in both radio-carpal (RC)-joints by amphotericin-B in 18 ponies, divided into three groups depending on the treatment injected: MSC-naïve (n = 7), MSC-primed (n = 7) and control (n = 4). The study consisted of two phases and used one RC-joint of each animal in each phase, with four months tim...
Stephens RM, Derse D, Rice NR.We isolated and characterized six cDNA clones from an equine infectious anemia virus-infected cell line that displays a Rev-defective phenotype. With the exception of one splice site in one of the clones, all six cDNAs exhibited the same splicing pattern and consisted of four exons. Exon 1 contained the 5' end of the genome; exon 2 contained the tat gene from mid-genome; exon 3 consisted of a small section of env, near the 5' end of the env gene; and exon 4 contained the putative rev open reading frame from the 3' end of the genome. The structures of the cDNAs predict a bicistronic message in ...
Lange-Consiglio A, Perrini C, Tasquier R, Deregibus MC, Camussi G, Pascucci L, Marini MG, Corradetti B, Bizzaro D, De Vita B, Romele P, Parolini O....Administration of horse amniotic mesenchymal cells (AMCs) and their conditioned medium (AMC-CM) improves the in vivo recovery of spontaneous equine tendon lesions and inhibits in vitro proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). This process may involve microvesicles (MVs) as an integral component of cell-to-cell communication during tissue regeneration. In this study, the presence and type of MVs secreted by AMCs were investigated and the response of equine tendon cells to MVs was studied using a dose-response curve at different concentrations and times. Moreover, the ability ...
Bhoora R, Franssen L, Oosthuizen MC, Guthrie AJ, Zweygarth E, Penzhorn BL, Jongejan F, Collins NE.A molecular epidemiological survey of the protozoal parasites that cause equine piroplasmosis was conducted using samples collected from horses and zebra from different geographical locations in South Africa. A total of 488 samples were tested for the presence of Theileria equi and/or Babesia caballi using the reverse line blot hybridization assay. Ten percent of the samples hybridized to the Theileria/Babesia genus-specific probe and not to the B. caballi or T. equi species-specific probes, suggesting the presence of a novel species or genotype. The small subunit of rRNA gene (18S; approximat...
Johansson KE, Pettersson B, Uhlén M, Gunnarsson A, Malmqvist M, Olsson E.Seven Swedish isolates of Ehrlichia species from the blood of four dogs and three horses with clinical granulocytic ehrlichiosis, were identified by direct solid phase DNA sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products from the 16S rRNA gene. The amplified DNA fragments were produced with primers complementary to the universal regions, U1, U2, U5 and U8 of the 16S rRNA molecule. Identical sequences were obtained from all seven isolates. This nucleotide sequence was similar to the sequences deposited in GenBank for Ehrlichia phagocytophila and E equi. The sequence of the Swedish ehrlich...
Fridell RA, Partin KM, Carpenter S, Cullen BR.Several members of the lentivirus family of complex retroviruses have been shown to encode proteins that are functionally equivalent to the Rev posttranscriptional regulatory protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Furthermore, the domain organization of HIV-1 Rev, featuring a highly basic N-terminal RNA binding domain and a leucin-rich C-terminal effector domain, has also been shown to be highly conserved among Rev proteins derived from not only the primate but also the ovine and caprine lentiviruses. Although it has therefore appeared highly probable that the lentivirus equin...
Haupt JL, Frisbie DD, McIlwraith CW, Robbins PD, Ghivizzani S, Evans CH, Nixon AJ.This study evaluated the potential of gene induced synoviocyte expression of a combination of insulin-like growth factor-I (AdIGF-I) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein (AdIL-1Ra) to control articular cartilage degradation in vitro. Cartilage explants and synovial membrane were harvested from young mature horses. Synovial monolayers were established and either (1) maintained as untransduced controls; (2) transduced with AdIGF-I at 200 MOI in 500 microl serum-free medium; (3) transduced with AdIL-1Ra at 100 MOI; or (4) transduced with a combination of AdIGF-I (200 MOI) and AdIL-1Ra (1...
Vézina Audette R, Lavoie-Lamoureux A, Lavoie JP, Laverty S.Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease of joint tissues that causes articular cartilage erosion, osteophytosis and loss of function due to pain. Inflammation and inflammatory cytokines in synovial fluid (SF) contribute to OA progression. Intra-articular (IA) injections of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are employed to treat OA in both humans and animals. MSCs secrete paracrine pro-inflammatory and anabolic signaling molecules that promote tissue repair. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of OASF on the gene expression of paracrine signaling molecule...
Caliari SR, Harley BA.Biomolecular environments encountered in vivo are complex and dynamic, with combinations of biomolecules presented in both freely diffusible (liquid-phase) and sequestered (bound to the extracellular matrix) states. Strategies for integrating multiple biomolecular signals into a biomimetic scaffold provide a platform to simultaneously control multiple cell activities, such as motility, proliferation, phenotype, and regenerative potential. Here we describe an investigation elucidating the influence of the dose and mode of presentation (soluble, sequestered) of five biomolecules (stromal cell-de...
Hill EW, Gu J, McGivney BA, MacHugh DE.Athletic performance is influenced by a complex interplay among the environment and a suite of genes, which contributes to system-wide structure and function. In a panel of elite and non-elite Thoroughbred horses (n=148), we genotyped 68 SNPs in 17 putative exercise-relevant genes chosen from a genome scan for selection. We performed a series of case-control and quantitative association tests for relationships with racecourse performance. Thirteen SNPs in nine genes were significantly (P<0.05) associated with a performance phenotype. We selected five SNPs in four genes (ACSS1, ACN9, COX4I1,...
Breathnach CC, Sturgill-Wright T, Stiltner JL, Adams AA, Lunn DP, Horohov DW.The increased vulnerability of foals to specific pathogens such as Rhodococcus equi is believed to reflect an innate immunodeficiency, the nature of which remains poorly understood. Previous studies have demonstrated that neonates of many species fail to mount potent Th1 responses. The current research investigates the ability of circulating and pulmonary lymphocytes of developing foals to produce interferon gamma (IFNgamma). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were prepared from up to 10 horse foals at regular intervals throughout the first 6 months of life. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL)...
Klein C, Scoggin KE, Ealy AD, Troedsson MH.Establishment and maintenance of pregnancy are critically dependent on embryo-maternal communication during the preimplantation period. To gain new insights into this complex process in the horse, transcriptional profiling of Day 13.5 pregnant and cyclic endometrial tissue samples was carried out using custom-designed microarrays. Selected array data were validated using quantitative RT-PCR, and proteins of interest were localized using immunohistochemistry. One hundred and six transcripts were up-regulated, whereas 47 transcripts showed lower expression levels in pregnant mares, that is, were...
Janečka JE, Davis BW, Ghosh S, Paria N, Das PJ, Orlando L, Schubert M, Nielsen MK, Stout TAE, Brashear W, Li G, Johnson CD, Metz RP, Zadjali AMA....Dynamic evolutionary processes and complex structure make the Y chromosome among the most diverse and least understood regions in mammalian genomes. Here, we present an annotated assembly of the male specific region of the horse Y chromosome (eMSY), representing the first comprehensive Y assembly in odd-toed ungulates. The eMSY comprises single-copy, equine specific multi-copy, PAR transposed, and novel ampliconic sequence classes. The eMSY gene density approaches that of autosomes with the highest number of retained X-Y gametologs recorded in eutherians, in addition to novel Y-born and transp...
Bian J, Khaychuk V, Angers RC, Fernández-Borges N, Vidal E, Meyerett-Reid C, Kim S, Calvi CL, Bartz JC, Hoover EA, Agrimi U, Richt JA, Castilla J....Adaptation of prions to new species is thought to reflect the capacity of the host-encoded cellular form of the prion protein (PrP) to selectively propagate optimized prion conformations from larger ensembles generated in the species of origin. Here we describe an alternate replicative process, termed nonadaptive prion amplification (NAPA), in which dominant conformers bypass this requirement during particular interspecies transmissions. To model susceptibility of horses to prions, we produced transgenic (Tg) mice expressing cognate PrP Although disease transmission to only a subset of infecte...
Liu JX, Höglund AS, Karlsson P, Lindblad J, Qaisar R, Aare S, Bengtsson E, Larsson L.This comparative study of myonuclear domain (MND) size in mammalian species representing a 100,000-fold difference in body mass, ranging from 25 g to 2500 kg, was undertaken to improve our understanding of myonuclear organization in skeletal muscle fibres. Myonuclear domain size was calculated from three-dimensional reconstructions in a total of 235 single muscle fibre segments at a fixed sarcomere length. Irrespective of species, the largest MND size was observed in muscle fibres expressing fast myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms, but in the two smallest mammalian species studied (mouse and r...
Richardson DW, Dodge GR.To assess the effects of glucocorticoids on the expression of multiple matrix-related genes in normal and cytokine-treated cultured equine articular chondrocytes in a phenotypically correct suspension culture. Methods: Articular cartilage harvested from the joints of 15 foals, 7 yearling horses, and 16 adult horses. Methods: Glucocorticoids (dexamethasone, prednisolone, triamcinolone) at 10(-10) to 10(-4) M. Methods: Equine articular chondrocytes maintained in suspension cultures were treated with glucocorticoids with and without human recombinant interleukin 1-beta (IL1-beta) and tumor necros...
Wutz G, Auer H, Nowotny N, Grosse B, Skern T, Kuechler E.Equine rhinoviruses (ERVs) are picornaviruses which cause a mild respiratory infection in horses. The illness resembles the common cold brought about by rhinoviruses in humans; however, the presence of a viraemia during ERV-1 infection, the occurrence of persistent infections and the physical properties are all more reminiscent of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). cDNA cloning and sequencing of the genomes of ERV-1 and ERV-2 between the poly(C) and poly(A) tracts showed that the serotypes are heterogeneous. Nevertheless, the genomic architecture of both serotypes is most similar to that of ...
Braun J, Hack A, Weis-Klemm M, Conrad S, Treml S, Kohler K, Walliser U, Skutella T, Aicher WK.To evaluate the proliferative behavior, telomere length, immunophenotype, and differentiation capacity of equine adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs). Methods: 6 adult racing horses treated for articular Injury but otherwise healthy. Methods: AT-MSCs were Isolated from horses and expanded In Dulbecco modified Eagle medium enriched with fetal bovine serum and antimicrobials. Expression of cell surface antigens and telomere length were Investigated via flow cytometry Differentiation of MSCs Into chondrocytes, osteoblasts, and adipocytes was Induced In vitro by specific stimuli...
Zhao Y, Holden VR, Smith RH, O'Callaghan DJ.The UL3 protein of equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) KyA strain is a homolog of the ICP27 alpha regulatory protein of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and the ORF 4 protein of varicella-zoster virus. To characterize the regulatory function of the UL3 gene product, a UL3 gene expression vector (pSVUL3) and a vector expressing a truncated version of the UL3 gene (pSVUL3P) were generated. These effector plasmids, in combination with an EHV-1 immediate-early (IE) gene expression vector (pSVIE) and chimeric EHV-1 promoter-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter constructs, were used in trans...
Paria N, Raudsepp T, Pearks Wilkerson AJ, O'Brien PC, Ferguson-Smith MA, Love CC, Arnold C, Rakestraw P, Murphy WJ, Chowdhary BP.Studies of the Y chromosome in primates, rodents and carnivores provide compelling evidence that the male specific region of Y (MSY) contains functional genes, many of which have specialized roles in spermatogenesis and male-fertility. Little similarity, however, has been found between the gene content and sequence of MSY in different species. This hinders the discovery of species-specific male fertility genes and limits our understanding about MSY evolution in mammals. Here, a detailed MSY gene catalogue was developed for the horse--an odd-toed ungulate. Using direct cDNA selection from horse...
Das PJ, McCarthy F, Vishnoi M, Paria N, Gresham C, Li G, Kachroo P, Sudderth AK, Teague S, Love CC, Varner DD, Chowdhary BP, Raudsepp T.Mature mammalian sperm contain a complex population of RNAs some of which might regulate spermatogenesis while others probably play a role in fertilization and early development. Due to this limited knowledge, the biological functions of sperm RNAs remain enigmatic. Here we report the first characterization of the global transcriptome of the sperm of fertile stallions. The findings improved understanding of the biological significance of sperm RNAs which in turn will allow the discovery of sperm-based biomarkers for stallion fertility. The stallion sperm transcriptome was interrogated by analy...
Mancuso VA, Hope TJ, Zhu L, Derse D, Phillips T, Parslow TG.By systematically dissecting the Rev proteins of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), we have identified within each a short peptide that is functionally interchangeable with the effector domains found in Rev-like proteins from other retroviruses. The active sequences from FIV and EIAV differ in several respects from other known effectors and may represent a distinct class of effector domain.
McGivney BA, McGettigan PA, Browne JA, Evans AC, Fonseca RG, Loftus BJ, Lohan A, MacHugh DE, Murphy BA, Katz LM, Hill EW.Digital gene expression profiling was used to characterize the assembly of genes expressed in equine skeletal muscle and to identify the subset of genes that were differentially expressed following a ten-month period of exercise training. The study cohort comprised seven Thoroughbred racehorses from a single training yard. Skeletal muscle biopsies were collected at rest from the gluteus medius at two time points: T(1) - untrained, (9 +/- 0.5 months old) and T(2) - trained (20 +/- 0.7 months old). Results: The most abundant mRNA transcripts in the muscle transcriptome were those involved in mus...
