Genetics in horses encompasses the study of hereditary traits and the genetic makeup that influences various characteristics and health conditions in equine populations. This field involves the analysis of genes and their functions, inheritance patterns, and the impact of genetic variations on traits such as coat color, performance ability, and susceptibility to diseases. Research in equine genetics employs techniques such as genome mapping, sequencing, and genetic testing to identify specific genes and mutations associated with these traits. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the genetic basis of equine traits, the methodologies used in genetic research, and the implications for breeding, health management, and conservation of horse breeds.
Bonicel J, Couchoud P, Foglizzo E, Desnuelle P, Chapus C.The complete sequence of the 96 residues composing horse colipase B has been determined by automated analysis of the intact protein, of two CNBr peptides and two tryptic peptides arising, respectively, from the citraconylated chain and from the unreduced protein. The single histidine of the protein is located at position 29 as in horse colipase A. His86, present in the C-terminal region of the pig cofactor and supposed to play a role in the folding molecule, is not conserved in horse B. Large pieces of the pig and horse B chains were found to be identical or very similar, especially the N-term...
Carsana A, Furia A, Gallo A, Beintema JJ, Libonati M.1. Extensively glycosylated ribonucleases, like the enzymes from pig and horse pancreas, show a much higher activity on double-stranded RNAs than similarly charged, carbohydrate-free RNAases under stranded assay conditions (relatively high salt concentrations). Glycosylated pig and horse pancreas RNAases also show a larger destabilizing effect on double-stranded poly[d(A-T)] X poly[d(A-T)], than that displayed by bovine RNAase A under these conditions. Both activities show a similar dependence on the ionic strength of the medium. 2. A partial enzymic removal of the heterosaccharide side chains...
Shupe JL, Eanes ED, Leone NC.Sodium fluoride (5 mg/kg of body weight) was fed for 20 months to horses with hereditary multiple exostoses (HME), a skeletal disorder that primarily affects endochondral bones during skeletal development. Rib biopsies were performed on both HME horses not fed fluoride (control) and HME horses that were fed fluoride to obtain comparable specimens for chemical analyses and x-ray diffraction. Fluoride content of the rib from a horse fed fluoride for 20 months was approximately 20 to 30 times higher than that from a control horse. Fluoride content of the bone tumors was higher than those of norma...
Dusek J, Munk Z.In a set of mares of English Thoroughbred horse of the Napajedla stock the gravidity length in the time period from 1880 to 1972 was evaluated. The variability of the gravidity length was evaluated in sets which were put together by combination of two age groups with a division of the studied time period into ten-year stages. Variance and sample means of the gravidity lengths in these sub-groups are significantly different in the period under study. In order to eliminate the action of non-genetic influences qualifying the variability of the gravidity length, and to increase the objectivity of ...
Orpin CG.Microscopic examination of horse caecum contents revealed vegetative growth of phycomycete fungi on particles of digesta, and uniflagellated cells similar to fungal zoospores in the liquid phase. Three morphologically distinct isolates of strictly anaerobic phycomycete fungi were obtained from the caecum contents and cultured in vitro. Two of the isolates were able to utilize a wide range of plant carbohydrates for growth, including alpha-cellulose, xylan and particulate starch, and extensively digested water-insoluble plant tissues.
Dunn HO, Smiley D, Duncan JR, McEntee K.The karyotypes of a Welsh pony and a Standardbred were 64,XX/64,XY and 63,XO/64,XY respectively. Both intersexes were true hermaphrodites with bilateral ovotestes. Neither intersex showed stallion-like behaviour. Each one had an underdeveloped penis, bilateral seminal vesicles and uterine tissue. It would appear that the chimerism in these equine intersexes resulted from double fertilization or fusion of blastocysts. Mosaicism in the Standardbred is a possibility, resulting from loss of a Y chromosome by anaphase lag in an early embryonic XY cell.
Mottironi VD, Perryman LE, Pollara B, Mickey MR, Swift R, McGrath P.Combined immunodeficiency disease (CID) is a genetic disorder of T and B lymphocyte production which results in a nonfunctional immune system. It is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait and has been reported in humans and in horses of the Arabian breed. Arabian horses known to have the CID gene and horses of unknown carrier status were tested using a microlymphocytotoxicity technique. Computer chi 2 analysis distinguished six serologically defined specificities. The study of unrelated horses and a limited number of families showed that the specificities behave as codominant alleles segreg...
McGuire TC, Perryman LE, Banks KL.Following the descriptions of immunodeficiencies in horses beginning in 1973, there has been considerable effort to develop methods for differential diagnosis and to determine the cause and prevalence of the disorders. In addition, the equine immunodeficiencies, especially combined immunodeficiency, have been studied from a comparative viewpoint with the goal of finding information applicable to similar diseases of children. Coincident with the development of knowledge about the immunodeficiencies per se, considerable information about several aspects of immunology has been obtained. It is the...
Rowlands IW.The world-wide foaling rate in the mare is low and in the Hannoverian breed has remained asymptotic at about 50 per cent for over 150 years. In an attempt to discover some of the possible reasons for this low fertility rate, the evolutionary history of the perissodactyls, the odd-toed ungulates, is reviewed here. Of the 156 genera of this order, 152 are in the fossil record; this gives them the highest extermination rate of all the mammal groups. Some of the unusual and unique features of the reproductive physiology of the mare and their possible association with low fertility are considered.
Chapus C, Desnuelle P, Foglizzo E.Pig and horse colipases have been purified by a common procedure using trypsin and carboxypeptidase inhibitors as stabilizers. Two forms of pig colipase were identified: a predominant A1 form with about 103-105 residues, and a minor slightly degraded A2 form in which the last two C-terminal residues, Asp and Ser, were lacking. This type of degradation is considerably slowed down by carboxypeptidase inhibitors. A total of four forms of the horse cofactor were characterized: two (A1 and B1) were probably isocolipases which differed by only a few substitutions. Both contained the same number of r...
Blue MG.The objective of this study was to investigate an hypothesis that chromosome anomalies are an important cause of prenatal loss in the mare. An attempt was made to analyse, cytogenetically, a series of 26 equine abortuses. Cell cultures were prepared from a range of tissues, but failed to grow, and chromosome analysis was therefore not possible for any of these specimens. Consequently, a study was made of the metaphase chromosomes prepared from 22 equine embryos after their surgical removal from mares' uteri. The karyotypes prepared for each specimen were normal. The current findings are discus...
Munk Z, Dusek J.The fertility problems were studied in the herd of the English Thoroughbred horse on the Napajedla stud farm. Breeding records for the period from 1880 to 1972 were used as the starting data. The survey comprised 32 stallions. The relationship between fertility and the number of matings was calculated by the chi 2 quantity. The calculated values are highly variable. However, it is generally seen in most of the stallions that the number of matings per heat (i. e. one or several matings) had no significant influence on the pregnancy of mares and on the fertility values of the stallions. A higher...
Blue MG.This study provides accumulated data to assist the definition of karyotypes from normal and infertile horses. The normal karyotype of the horse (2n = 64) was characterized following Giemsa staining and C- banding, and 23% aneuploidy was found among chromosome counts of cells prepared from 44 clinically normal horses and 24 equine embryos. These expected variations in chromosome counts are especially important in the evaluation of potential mosaicism. Centromere staining was shown to be a valuable aid for the identification of specific chromosomes, in particular the sex chromosomes. Sex chromat...
Dal Canto MC, Rabinowitz SG.Arboviruses are important pathogens for both animals and humans. Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus (VEEV) is an arbovirus whose pathogenicity for grey matter structures has been previously studied. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to describe extensive inflammation and demyelination in spinal cord white matter of mice infected with VEEV. To probe a possible immunepathogenesis of white matter alterations in this infection, nude mice and heterozygous controls were similarly infected. Whereas controls still showed inflammatory demyelination, nude mice showed no white matte...
Le Vine H, Cuatrecasas P.A cytosolic, macromolecular factor required for the cholera toxin-dependent activation of pigeon erythrocyte adenylate cyclase and cholera toxin-dependent ADP-ribosylation of a membrane-bound 43,000 dalton polypeptide has been purified 1100-fold from horse erythrocyte cytosol using organic solvent precipitation and heat treatment. This factor, 13,000 daltons, does not absorb to anionic or cationic exchange resins, is sensitive to trypsin or 10% trichloroacetic acid and is not extractable by diethyl ether. Activation of adenylate cyclase by cholera toxin requires the simultaneous presence of AT...
Bowling AT.Accuracy of assigning foal paternity to the second serving stallion for foals whose dams had been bred to two stallions within an interval of 1 to 45 days was investigated using breeding dates from 108 equine paternity cases solved by blood typing. One hundred two of the foals were sired by the second stallion but six foals (5.5%) were excluded as being by the second sires. Thus, breeding dates are not reliable as a sole source of information to assign equine paternity accurately.
Suagee JK, Corl BA.Culturing adipocytes enables fine control of experimental conditions and helps minimise animal use. This report describes an explant-based method for isolating stromal-vascular cells from equine adipose tissue that enables use of small amounts of tissue. Subcutaneous and mesenteric adipose tissues were harvested post mortem and stromal-vascular cells grown from explants, prior to testing the capacity of several differentiation media to induce lipid droplet formation and increase transcript abundance of adipocyte markers. Inclusion of rosiglitazone at 1 and 5 µmol/l concentrations, along with ...
Martin L, Damaso N, Mills D.Molecular methods for the detection of mammalian coat color phenotypes have expanded greatly within the past decade. Many phenotypes are associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism mutation in the genetic sequence. Traditionally, these mutations are detected through sequencing, hybridization assays or mini-sequencing. However, these techniques can be expensive and tedious. Previously, CE-SSCP using the F-108 polymer was able to distinguish SNPs for the melanocortin-1 receptor (mc1r) coat color gene in horses (Equus caballus) that differed by one nucleotide substitution. The objective of t...
Kochanowska IE, Kuropatwa M, Szewczuk A.It was noted that human and horse sera as well as human heart and skeletal muscle homogenates or extracts distinctly decrease immunoassays of purified myoglobins. The assays of homogenate and extract myoglobins could be many times increased by precipitation certain proteins with concentrated ammonium sulfate or sodium chloride. Also in homogenates and extracts incubated for several days increased assays of myoglobins were noted. The obtained results indicate that both myoglobins occur in complex with other tissue component(s).
Bouquet Y, Van Zeveren A, Van de Weghe A, Mériaux JC.The inheritance of a new D system red cell antigen, factor 22, is described. It has also been possible to discriminate more efficiently between D system phenogroups enabling genotypes to be identified from phenotypes in the majority of cases. This improves the accuracy of animal identification and gene frequency estimates.
Wutke S, Benecke N, Sandoval-Castellanos E, Döhle HJ, Friederich S, Gonzalez J, Hallsson JH, Hofreiter M, Lõugas L, Magnell O, Morales-Muniz A....An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Bailey E.Native Americans of the Plains and Rocky Mountains are renowned for their horsemanship. Taylor et al. recently used ancient DNA and other bioarcheological approaches to document how horses dispersed throughout America and transformed Native American societies following their introduction by the Spanish in 1519, well before the arrival of European settlers.