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.
Ghosh S, Das PJ, McQueen CM, Gerber V, Swiderski CE, Lavoie JP, Chowdhary BP, Raudsepp T.We explored the involvement of genomic copy number variants (CNVs) in susceptibility to recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), or heaves-an asthmalike inflammatory disease in horses. Analysis of 16 RAO-susceptible (cases) and six RAO-resistant (control) horses on a custom-made whole-genome 400K equine tiling array identified 245 CNV regions (CNVRs), 197 previously known and 48 new, distributed on all horse autosomes and the X chromosome. Among the new CNVRs, 30 were exclusively found in RAO cases and were further analyzed by quantitative PCR, including additional cases and controls. Suggestive as...
Staiger EA, Al Abri MA, Pflug KM, Kalla SE, Ainsworth DM, Miller D, Raudsepp T, Sutter NB, Brooks SA.Conformation has long been a driving force in horse selection and breed creation as a predictor for performance. The Tennessee Walking Horse (TWH) ranges in size from 1.5 to 1.7 m and is often used as a trail, show, and pleasure horse. To investigate the contribution of genetics to body conformation in the TWH, we collected DNA samples, body measurements, and gait/training information from 282 individuals. We analyzed the 32 body measures with a principal component analysis. Principal component (PC)1 captured 28.5% of the trait variance, while PC2 comprised just 9.5% and PC3 6.4% of trait vari...
Hussein H, Boyaka P, Dulin J, Bertone A.Cathepsin K (CatK) is an important enzyme regulating bone degradation and has been shown to contribute to the immune response. We have studied two inflammatory models in equine bone marrow nucleated cells (BMNCs); the LPS and the unmethylated CpG stimulation with the following objectives to: 1.determine whether CatK inhibition will alter the cytokine secretion by stimulated BMNCs; specifically IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α, and 2.determine the changes in BMNCs surface markers' expression and MHC II molecule under CatK inhibition. Cathepsin K inhibition promoted BMNCs viability and reduced cell apop...
Smyth GB, Dagley K.To obtain information on the types of Australian horses, how they are kept and their activities. Methods: An invitation to participate in an opt-in, internet-based survey was sent to 7000 people who had registered an email address to receive information from the Australian Horse Industry Council Inc. Results: There were 3377 (48%) useable responses from owners of 26,548 horses. Most horses were kept on small properties (usually 2-8 ha) in paddocks in rural areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Most horses were female or geldings and the most common of 54 different activities was...
Taylor KR, MacKay RJ, Nelson EA, Stieler AL, Roberts JF, Castleman WL.Two horses euthanized for neurologic deficits were diagnosed with hamartomatous myelodysplasia of the spinal cord. One was a 5-week-old Holsteiner colt exhibiting spasms of muscle rigidity in the extensor muscles of the limbs and epaxial muscles, and the other was a 3-year-old Thoroughbred colt exhibiting progressive ataxia and hypermetria in the pelvic limbs. Each had focal disorganization of the white and gray matter of the spinal cord forming a mass interspersed with neurons, glial cells, and disoriented axon bundles. In the Holsteiner colt, the mass was at the level of C5 and included isla...
Hinrichs K, Choi YH.Embryo cryopreservation presents an essential method for banking of valuable genetics. However, in equine species the cryopreservation of embryos is complicated by three interacting factors: (1) the late entry of the embryo into the uterus (~6 days after ovulation); (2) the rapid expansion of the blastocyst; and (3) the formation of the equine embryonic capsule, a glycoprotein membrane that forms between the embryo and zona. Efforts to freeze or vitrify equine expanded blastocysts were initially met with little success. In addition, it was thought that breaching the capsule led to loss of embr...
Oldenhof H, Schütze S, Wolkers WF, Sieme H.Sperm chromatin structure and condensation determine accessibility for damage, and hence success of fertilization and development. The aim of this study was to reveal characteristic spectral features coinciding with abnormal sperm chromatin packing (i.e., DNA-protein interactions) and decreased fertility, using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Chromatin structure in spermatozoa obtained from different stallions was investigated. Furthermore, spermatozoa were exposed to oxidative stress, or treated with thiol-oxidizing and disulfide-reducing agents, to alter chromatin structure and pack...
Kozai K, Tokuyama S, Szóstek AZ, Toishi Y, Tsunoda N, Taya K, Sakatani M, Takahashi M, Nambo Y, Skarzynski DJ, Yamamoto Y, Kimura K, Okuda K.In mares, prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) secreted from the endometrium is a major luteolysin. Some domestic animals have an auto-amplification system in which PGF2α can stimulate its own production. Here, we investigated whether this is also the case in mares. In an in vivo study, mares at the mid-luteal phase (days 6-8 of estrous cycle) were injected i.m. with cloprostenol (250 µg) and blood samples were collected at fixed intervals until 72 h after treatment. Progesterone (P4) concentrations started decreasing 45 min after the injection and continued to decrease up to 24 h (P < 0.05). In t...
Sung SE, Hwang M, Kim AY, Lee EM, Lee EJ, Hwang SK, Kim SY, Kim HK, Jeong KS.Mesenchymal stem cells could potentially be used in the clinical treatment of muscle disorders and muscle regeneration. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) can be easily isolated from adipose tissue, as opposed to stem cells of other tissues. We believe that cell therapy using ADSCs could be applied to muscle disorders in horses and other species. We sought to improve the myogenic differentiation potential of equine ADSCs (eqADSCs) using a MyoD lentiviral vector. MyoD lentiviruses were transduced into eqADSCs and selected using puromycin. Cells were cultured in differentiation media containing ...
Raudsepp T, Chowdhary BP.The association between chromosomal abnormalities and reduced fertility in domestic animals is well recorded and has been studied for decades. Chromosome aberrations directly affect meiosis, gametogenesis, and the viability of zygotes and embryos. In some instances, balanced structural rearrangements can be transmitted, causing fertility problems in subsequent generations. Here, we aim to give a comprehensive overview of the current status and future prospects of clinical cytogenetics of animal reproduction by focusing on the advances in molecular cytogenetics during the genomics era. We descr...
Handing KB, Shabalin IG, Szlachta K, Majorek KA, Minor W.Serum albumin (SA) is the main transporter of drugs in mammalian blood plasma. Here, we report the first crystal structure of equine serum albumin (ESA) in complex with antihistamine drug cetirizine at a resolution of 2.1Å. Cetirizine is bound in two sites--a novel drug binding site (CBS1) and the fatty acid binding site 6 (CBS2). Both sites differ from those that have been proposed in multiple reports based on equilibrium dialysis and fluorescence studies for mammalian albumins as cetirizine binding sites. We show that the residues forming the binding pockets in ESA are highly conserved in h...
The Journal of heredityFebruary 16, 2016
Volume 107, Issue 3 214-219 doi: 10.1093/jhered/esw007
Jacobs LN, Staiger EA, Albright JD, Brooks SA.Shared signaling pathways utilized by melanocytes and neurons result in pleiotropic traits of coat color and behavior in many mammalian species. For example, in humans polymorphisms at MC1R cause red hair, increased heat sensitivity, and lower pain tolerance. In deer mice, rats, and foxes, ASIP polymorphisms causing black coat color lead to more docile demeanors and reduced activity. Horse (Equus caballus) base coat color is primarily determined by polymorphisms at the Melanocortin-1 Receptor (MC1R) and Agouti Signaling Protein (ASIP) loci, creating a black, bay, or chestnut coat. Our goal was...
Tydén E, Skarin M, Andersson-Franko M, Sjöblom M, Höglund J.Anthelmintic resistance (AR) to macrocyclic lactones (ML) has been described in Parascaris of horses world-wide. In contrast, benzimidazoles (BZ) are still effective, although reduced efficacy to this drug class was recently reported. The mode of action of BZ is binding to β-tubulin, which prevents polymerisation of microtubules. In this study, β-tubulin gene expression of isotypes 1 and 2 was investigated at seven time points (0, 6, 24, 72, 96 and 120 h) during embryogenesis and in adult worms. In addition, an in ovo larval developmental test was developed to study β-tubulin gene expressio...
Goudet G, Douet C, Kaabouba-Escurier A, Couty I, Moros-Nicolás C, Barrière P, Blard T, Reigner F, Deleuze S, Magistrini M.Most wild and domestic donkey breeds are currently endangered or threatened. Their preservation includes the creation of a Genome Resource Bank. Embryos cryopreservation allows the preservation of genetics from both male and female and is the fastest method to restore a breed. Because embryo production in vivo is limited in equids, our objective was to establish conditions for in vitro production of embryos in donkey using ovum pick up (OPU), IVM, IVF, and in vitro culture of zygotes. Donkey cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were collected by transvaginal ultrasound-guided aspirations OPU in ...
Heuer C, Scheel C, Tetens J, Kühn C, Thaller G.Categorical traits without ordinal representation of classes do not qualify for threshold models. Alternatively, the multinomial problem can be assessed by a sequence of independent binary contrasts using schemes such as one-vs-all or one-vs-one. Class probabilities can be arrived at by normalization or pair-wise coupling strategies. We assessed the predictive ability of whole-genome regression models and support vector machines for the classification of horses into four German Warmblood breeds. Results: Prediction accuracies of leave-one-out cross-validation were high and ranged from 0.75 to ...
Reed SM, Furr M, Howe DK, Johnson AL, MacKay RJ, Morrow JK, Pusterla N, Witonsky S.Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) remains an important neurologic disease of horses. There are no pathognomonic clinical signs for the disease. Affected horses can have focal or multifocal central nervous system (CNS) disease. EPM can be difficult to diagnose antemortem. It is caused by either of 2 parasites, Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora hughesi, with much less known about N. hughesi. Although risk factors such as transport stress and breed and age correlations have been identified, biologic factors such as genetic predispositions of individual animals, and parasite-specific factors...
Mehdizadeh Gohari I, Kropinski AM, Weese SJ, Parreira VR, Whitehead AE, Boerlin P, Prescott JF.The recent discovery of a novel beta-pore-forming toxin, NetF, which is strongly associated with canine and foal necrotizing enteritis should improve our understanding of the role of type A Clostridium perfringens associated disease in these animals. The current study presents the complete genome sequence of two netF-positive strains, JFP55 and JFP838, which were recovered from cases of foal necrotizing enteritis and canine hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, respectively. Genome sequencing was done using Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) technology-PacBio and Illumina Hiseq2000. The JFP55 and JFP838...
Frischknecht M, Flury C, Leeb T, Rieder S, Neuditschko M.Shetland ponies were selected for numerous traits including small stature, strength, hardiness and longevity. Despite the different selection criteria, Shetland ponies are well known for their small stature. We performed a selection signature analysis including genome-wide SNPs of 75 Shetland ponies and 76 large-sized horses. Based upon this dataset, we identified a selection signature on equine chromosome (ECA) 1 between 103.8 Mb and 108.5 Mb. A total of 33 annotated genes are located within this interval including the IGF1R gene at 104.2 Mb and the ADAMTS17 gene at 105.4 Mb. These two ge...
Bayerova Z, Janova E, Matiasovic J, Orlando L, Horin P.Immunity-related genes are a suitable model for studying effects of selection at the genomic level. Some of them are highly conserved due to functional constraints and purifying selection, while others are variable and change quickly to cope with the variation of pathogens. The SLC11A1 gene encodes a transporter protein mediating antimicrobial activity of macrophages. Little is known about the patterns of selection shaping this gene during evolution. Although it is a typical evolutionarily conserved gene, functionally important polymorphisms associated with various diseases were identified in ...
Peugnet P, Robles M, Wimel L, Tarrade A, Chavatte-Palmer P.The study of early developmental conditioning of health and disease in adulthood is particularly relevant in the horse, which is bred mainly to perform in demanding sport challenges. On the basis of this concept, the management of the broodmare could be considered an effective means to produce animals with the desired features. Knowledge on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in the equine species remains relatively scarce, with some experimental studies and one single epidemiologic study. Data highlight the determinant role of the maternal environment for postnatal body conformati...
Haenni M, Saras E, Ponsin C, Dahmen S, Petitjean M, Hocquet D, Madec JY.The objective of this study was to characterize ESBL-producing Enterobacter cloacae isolated from animals and to compare their clonal distribution with that of human-related isolates. Among 635 clinical E. cloacae from horses, dogs and cats collected in France between 2010 and 2013, 36 were resistant to ceftiofur as determined by disc diffusion. ESBL genes were identified by sequencing. Plasmids carrying ESBL-encoding genes were characterized by PCR-based replicon typing, S1-PFGE and Southern blotting. IncHI2 plasmids were subtyped using the plasmid double-locus sequence typing scheme and mult...
Casteleyn C, Cornillie P, Tüllmann V, Van Cruchten S, Van Ginneken C.An Oldenburg colt with wry nose was autopsied after having lived for only 30 min. It presented cyanotic oral mucosae, underdeveloped eyes and a right-sided temporal osseous mass. The applicable nomenclature for the defects is discussed, and the potential etiopathogenesis is explored by describing the normal embryonic development of the affected body parts.
Kim H, Lee YK, Kang SC, Han BK, Choi KM.Various new technologies have been applied for developing vaccines against various animal diseases. Virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine technology was used for manufacturing the porcine circovirus type 2 and RNA particle vaccines based on an alphavirus vector for porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). Although VLP is classified as a killed-virus vaccine, because its structure is similar to the original virus, it can induce long-term and cell-mediated immunity. The RNA particle vaccine used a Venezuela equine encephalitis (VEE) virus gene as a vector. The VEE virus partial gene can be substituted with ...
Dixon J, Smith K, Perkins J, Sherlock C, Mair T, Weller R.Melanomas are one of the most common neoplasms in the horse and are frequently found in the head region. There is a genetic predisposition in horses with a gray hair coat. Computed tomography (CT) is frequently used in referral practice to evaluate the equine head but there are few reports describing the CT appearance of melanomas in this location. The aim of this retrospective, case series study was to describe characteristics in a group of horses with confirmed disease. Case records from two referral hospitals were reviewed, and 13 horses were identified that had undergone CT of the head, wi...
Baer A, Lundberg L, Swales D, Waybright N, Pinkham C, Dinman JD, Jacobs JL, Kehn-Hall K.Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is a previously weaponized arthropod-borne virus responsible for causing acute and fatal encephalitis in animal and human hosts. The increased circulation and spread in the Americas of VEEV and other encephalitic arboviruses, such as eastern equine encephalitis virus and West Nile virus, underscore the need for research aimed at characterizing the pathogenesis of viral encephalomyelitis for the development of novel medical countermeasures. The host-pathogen dynamics of VEEV Trinidad donkey-infected human astrocytoma U87MG cells were determined by car...
Kumar S, Garg R, Kumar S, Banerjee PS, Ram H, Prasad A.Benzimidazole resistance is a major hindrance to the control of equine cyathostominosis throughout the world. There is a paucity of knowledge on the level of benzimidazole resistance in small strongyles of horses in India. In the present study, allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) that detects F200Y mutation of the isotype 1 β-tubulin gene and faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) were used for detecting benzimidazole resistance in equine cyathostomin populations in different agro-climatic zones of Uttar Pradesh, India. Results of the FECRT revealed prevalence of benzimidazole resistance in cyathos...
Bashir ST, Ishak GM, Gastal MO, Roser JF, Gastal EL.Changes in intrafollicular growth factors and hormones were evaluated in vivo in postdeviation and impending ovulation follicles. Mares (n = 30) were randomly assigned to five experimental groups based on target diameters of 25, 30, 35, 40 mm, and impending signs of ovulation. Furthermore, data belonging to two or more proximal diameter groups that were not different were combined and regrouped for each factor separately. Follicular fluid-free insulin-like growth factor 1 was highest (P 0.05) among groups. Additionally, follicular fluid activin A tended (P < 0.06) to be higher in i...
Quattrocelli M, Giacomazzi G, Broeckx SY, Ceelen L, Bolca S, Spaas JH, Sampaolesi M.Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great potential not only for human but also for veterinary purposes. The equine industry must often deal with health issues concerning muscle and cartilage, where comprehensive regenerative strategies are still missing. In this regard, a still open question is whether equine iPSCs differentiate toward muscle and cartilage, and whether donor cell type influences their differentiation potential. We addressed these questions through an isogenic system of equine iPSCs obtained from myogenic mesoangioblasts (MAB-iPSCs) and chondrogenic mesenchymal stem ce...
Frischknecht M, Signer-Hasler H, Leeb T, Rieder S, Neuditschko M.To identify novel quantitative trait loci (QTL) within horses, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on sequence-level genotypes for conformation and performance traits in the Franches-Montagnes (FM) horse breed. Sequence-level genotypes of FM horses were derived by re-sequencing 30 key founders and imputing 50K data of genotyped horses. In total, we included 1077 FM horses genotyped for ~4 million SNPs and their respective de-regressed breeding values of the traits in the analysis. Based on this dataset, we identified a total of 14 QTL associated with 18 conformation trai...
Lagneaux D, Huhtinen M, Koskinen E, Palmer E.Equine embryos recovered on Day 6 after ovulation were cooled to +4 degrees C, or frozen with AFP alone or together with glycerol. Twenty embryos (140-200 microm in diameter) were randomly assigned to 6 treatment groups. In the first 3 groups, the embryos were cooled from room temperature to +4 degrees C at a rate of 3 degrees C/min and warmed again at a rate of 32 degrees C/min in a programmable freezer. In the second 3 groups, the embryos were frozen using a standard protocol, stored in liquid nitrogen for 5-7 days and then thawed in a 37 degrees C waterbath. After cooling/warming or freezin...
Dossa RG, Alperin DC, Hines MT, Hines SA.The CD1 family is a group of non-polymorphic MHC class I-like molecules that present lipid-based antigens to T cells. Previous work in our laboratory demonstrated that cytotoxic T lymphocytes from immune adult horses recognize lipids from the cell wall of an important equine pathogen, Rhodococcus equi. These findings suggest an important role for the equine CD1 antigen presentation system in protective immune responses to microbial pathogens in the horse. In this study, we characterized and mapped the equine CD1 gene cluster. The equine genome was found to contain 13 complete CD1 genes; seven ...
Müller-Unterberg M, Wallmann S, Distl O.The Black Forest Draught horse (BFDH) is an endangered German coldblood breed with its origin in the area of the Black Forest in South Germany. In this retrospective study, the influence of the inbreeding coefficient on foaling rates was investigated using records from ten breeding seasons. Due to the small population size of BFDH, the level of inbreeding is increasing and may have an effect on foaling rates.The data of the present study included all coverings reported for 1024 BFDH mares in the years 2001-2009. These mares were covered by 32 BFDH stallions from the State Stud Marbach. Data fr...
Hilla D, Distl O.The main objective of this study is to estimate genetic parameters for osteochondrosis (OC) and osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD) in fetlock, hock and stifle joints as well as for palmar or plantar osteochondral fragments (POFs) and dorsodistal osteochondral fragments (DOFs) in fetlock joints. For this purpose, the results of a standardized radiographic examination of 7396 Hanoverian Warmblood horses were used. Heritabilities and genetic correlations were estimated using residual maximum likelihood (REML) under a linear animal model. Heritability estimates for OC at the different joints were at ...
Bailey GD, Love DN.Two hundred and seventy bacterial isolates were obtained from the pharyngeal tonsillar surface of 12 normal horses and 98 obligatory anaerobic bacteria were characterised. Of these, 57 isolates belonging to 7 genera (Peptostreptococcus (1); Eubacterium (9); Clostridium (6); Veillonella (6); Megasphera (1); Bacteroides (28); Fusobacterium (6)) were identified, and 16 of these were identified to species level (P. anaerobius (1); E. fossor (9); C. villosum (1); B. fragilis (1); B. tectum (2); B. heparinolyticus (2)). Three hundred and twenty isolates were obtained from 23 samples from horses with...
Révay T, Villagómez DA, Brewer D, Chenier T, King WA.Genetic sex in mammals is determined by the sex chromosomal composition of the zygote. The X and Y chromosomes are responsible for numerous factors that must work in close concert for the proper development of a healthy sexual phenotype. The role of androgens in case of XY chromosomal constitution is crucial for normal male sex differentiation. The intracellular androgenic action is mediated by the androgen receptor (AR), and its impaired function leads to a myriad of syndromes with severe clinical consequences, most notably androgen insensitivity syndrome and prostate cancer. In this paper, w...
Bigi D, Perrotta G, Zambonelli P.To understand the origin and genetic diversity of Italian horses, mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequences were generated for 163 horses from seven breeds. Sequence analysis of a 480-bp segment revealed a total of 84 haplotypes with 57 polymorphic sites, indicating multiple maternal origins and high genetic diversity. Comparison of the haplotypes with the equine mtDNA haplotype/haplogroup nomenclature showed a haplogroup distribution in the Italian breeds more similar to that found in the Middle East breeds than in the European breeds, probably due to the economic and cultural relationship with the ...
Galvão A, Skarzynski DJ, Szóstek A, Silva E, Tramontano A, Mollo A, Mateus L, Ferreira-Dias G.Knowledge on the regulation of corpus luteum (CL) function in the mare is scarce. In this study, the presence of cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) and interferon gamma (IFNG), and their receptors (TNFRI, TNFRII and IFNRI), was investigated in equine CL throughout the luteal phase. The effects of TNF and IFNG on secretory function and viability of luteal cells were defined in vitro. Cytokine ligands and receptors were present in steroidogenic and endothelial cells. Protein expression for TNF was greater in mid-phase and regressing CL, while TNFRI was increased in regressing CL and TNF...
Gebremedhn S, Gad A, Ishak GM, Menjivar NG, Gastal MO, Feugang JM, Prochazka R, Tesfaye D, Gastal EL.Innumerable similarities in reproductive cyclicity and hormonal alterations highlight the considerable utility of the mare to study aspects of follicular dynamics and reproductive function in view of the largely constricted, human research subjects. The bi-directional communication between the growing oocyte and the surrounding somatic cells embodies the hallmark of mammalian follicular development, partially mediated by extracellular vesicles (EVs) encapsulated with microRNAs (miRNAs) and present in the follicular fluid (FF). Here, we aimed to decipher the dynamics of the miRNAs in EVs from e...
Kawaoka Y, Webster RG.A severe influenza outbreak occurred in horses in South Africa in 1986. The causative agent was identified as an influenza virus [A/Equine/Johannesburg/86 (H3N8)]. Antigenic analyses of the hemagglutinin (HA) with ferret antisera and monoclonal antibodies showed that the Eq/Johannesburg/86 virus is similar to recent equine H3 viruses. The nucleotide sequence analysis on the HA genes of Eq/Johannesburg/86 and other equine H3 influenza viruses, together with the epidemiological data, clearly demonstrated that the Eq/Johannesburg/86 virus was derived from a virus that had been circulating in hors...
Blythe LL, Craig AM, Lassen ED, Rowe KE, Appell LH.Plasma alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) values were monitored serially in 9 foals sired by a stallion with equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy (EDM) and in 5 age-matched control foals (sired by a clinically normal stallion) raised in the same environment for the first year of life. Clinical evaluation determined that 8 of the 9 foals sired by the stallion with EDM had neurologic deficits consistent with the disease on one or more occasions during the study period, whereas control foals had normal gait. From 6 weeks to 10 months of age, plasma alpha-tocopherol values in foals with signs of EDM ...
Mecocci S, Porcellato I, Armando F, Mechelli L, Brachelente C, Pepe M, Gialletti R, Passeri B, Modesto P, Ghelardi A, Cappelli K, Razzuoli E.Equine genital squamous cell carcinomas (egSCCs) are among the most common equine tumors after sarcoids, severely impairing animal health and welfare. papillomavirus type 2 (EcPV2) infection is often related to these tumors. The aim of this study was to clarify the molecular mechanisms behind egSCCs associated with EcPV2 infection, investigating receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) signaling in NF-kB pathway, together with the Wnt and IL17 signaling pathways. We analyzed the innate immune response through gene expression evaluation of key cytokines and transcription fac...
Alpoim-Moreira J, Fernandes C, Rebordão MR, Amaral A, Pinto-Bravo P, Bliebernicht M, Skarzynski DJ, Ferreira-Dias G.Inflammation and fibroproliferative diseases may be modulated by epigenetic changes. Therefore, we suggest that epigenetic mechanisms could be involved in equine endometrosis pathogenesis. DNA methylation is one of the methods to evaluate epigenetics, through the transcription of methyltransferases (DNMT1, DNMT3A, DNMT3B). The correlation between DNMTs and collagen (COL) transcripts was assessed for the different Kenney and Doig's (Current Therapy in Theriogenology. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 1986) endometrium categories. Endometrial biopsies were randomly collected from cyclic mares. Histolog...
Musilova P, Kubickova S, Zrnova E, Horin P, Vahala J, Rubes J.Using laser microdissection we prepared a set of horse chromosome arm-specific probes. Most of the probes were generated from horse chromosomes, some of them were derived from Equus zebra hartmannae. The set of probes were hybridized onto E. grevyi chromosomes in order to establish a genome-wide chromosomal correspondence between this zebra and horse. The use of arm-specific probes provided us with more information on the mutual arrangement of the genomes than we could obtain by means of whole-chromosome paints generated by flow sorting, even if we used reciprocal painting with probe sets from...
El-Sabban ME, El-Khoury H, Hamdan-Khalil R, Sindet-Pedersen S, Bazarbachi A.Colloss and Colloss-E are sterile acellular lyophilizates extracted from bovine and equine bone matrix, respectively. Animal and clinical studies have shown that these xenogenic bone matrix extracts (BMEs) are effective as bone graft substitutes. In this report, we investigated the effect of Colloss and Colloss-E on human adult in vitro-expanded bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs). Specifically, we assessed whether these xenogenic BMEs induced osteoblastic differentiation of cultured BMMSC. We show that BMMSCs treated with either Colloss or Colloss-E exhibited characteristic os...
Finno CJ, Stevens C, Young A, Affolter V, Joshi NA, Ramsay S, Bannasch DL.Horses belong to the order Perissodactyla and bear the majority of their weight on their third toe; therefore, tremendous force is applied to each hoof. An inherited disease characterized by a phenotype restricted to the dorsal hoof wall was identified in the Connemara pony. Hoof wall separation disease (HWSD) manifests clinically as separation of the dorsal hoof wall along the weight-bearing surface of the hoof during the first year of life. Parents of affected ponies appeared clinically normal, suggesting an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. A case-control allelic genome wide associat...
Almarzook S, Reissmann M, Arends D, Brockmann GA.Although Arabian horses have been bred in strains for centuries and pedigrees have been recorded in studbooks, to date, little is known about the genetic diversity within and between these strains. In this study, we tested if the three main strains of Syrian Arabian horses descend from three founders as suggested by the studbook. We examined 48 horses representing Saglawi (n = 18), Kahlawi (n = 16) and Hamdani (n = 14) strains using the Equine SNP70K BeadChip. For comparison, an additional 24 Arabian horses from the USA and three Przewalski's horses as an out group were added. Observed h...
Sacchi L, Corona S, Gajadhar AA, Pozio E.The nurse cell-larva complex of nematodes of the genus Trichinella plays an important role in the survival of the larva in decaying muscles, frequently favouring the transmission of the parasite in extreme environmental conditions. The ultrastructure of the nurse cell-larva complex in muscles from different hosts infected with T. nativa (a walrus and a polar bear), T. spiralis (horses and humans), T. pseudospiralis (a laboratory mouse) and T. papuae (a laboratory mouse) were examined. Analysis with transmission electron microscope showed that the typical nurse cell structure was present in all...
Yao H, Osterrieder N, O'Callaghan DJ.The EICP0 gene (gene 63) of equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) encodes an early regulatory protein that is a promiscuous trans-activator of all classes of viral genes. Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) technology and RecE/T cloning were employed to delete the EICP0 gene from EHV-1 strain KyA. Polymerase chain reaction, Southern blot analysis, and DNA sequencing confirmed the deletion of the EICP0 gene and its replacement with a kanamycin resistance gene in mutant KyA. Transfection of rabbit kidney cells with the EICP0 mutant genome produced infectious virus, indicating that the EICP0 gene is not...
Perdomo-González DI, Sánchez-Guerrero MJ, Molina A, Valera M.The aim of this work was to analyze genetic parameters such as the inbreeding coefficient (F), relatedness coefficient (AR) and partial inbreeding coefficient (Fij) of the whole PRE population, and the ancestors which account for 50% of the total genetic variability of the current population, from genealogical information. The average F of the whole PRE population (328,706 animals) has decreased from 8.45% to 7.51% in the least 20 years. The Fij was estimated for the whole PRE population, resulting in a database of 58,772,533 records containing one record for each Fij that each animal receives...
Kasapi MA, Gosline JM.Small-scale components of the equine hoof wall were tested to determine their mechanical roles in the morphological hierarchy. Macroscale tensile tests conducted on samples of the inner wall tubules and intertubular material showed a sixfold difference in mean initial stiffnesses (0.47 and 0.08 GPa, respectively), indicating that the inner wall tubules stiffen the wall along its longitudinal axis. The similarity in material properties of tubule and intertubular samples from the mid-wall suggests that tubules in this region offer only minor reinforcement along the longitudinal axis. Microscale ...
Shao H, Robek MD, Threadgill DS, Mankowski LS, Cameron CE, Fuller FJ, Payne SL.The macrophage tropic lentivirus, equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), encodes a dUTPase in the pol gene that is required for efficient replication in macrophages. Two naturally occurring variants of the enzyme were expressed as recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli; metal chelate affinity chromatography was used to purify histidine-tagged recombinant enzymes to greater than 80% homogeneity in a single chromatographic step. Biochemical and enzymatic analyses of these preparations suggest that this method yields dUTPase that is suitable for detailed mutational analysis. Specific activities...
Tozaki T, Sato F, Ishimaru M, Kikuchi M, Kakoi H, Hirota KI, Nagata SI.Ligand-dependent nuclear receptor compressor-like (LCORL) encodes a transcription factor, and its polymorphisms are associated with measures of skeletal frame size and adult height in several species. Recently, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) BIEC2-808543 located upstream of LCORL was identified as a genetic diagnostic marker associated with withers height in Thoroughbreds. In this study, 322 Thoroughbreds-in-training were genotyped for BIEC2-808543 to evaluate the association between genotype and body composition traits, including body weight, withers height, the ratio of body weight...
Won SY, Kim YC, Do K, Jeong BH.Prion disease is a fatal infectious disease caused by the accumulation of pathogenic prion protein (PrP) in several mammals. However, to date, prion disease has not been reported in horses. The Sho protein encoded by the shadow of the prion protein gene (SPRN) plays an essential role in the pathomechanism of prion diseases. To date, the only genetic study of the equine SPRN gene has been reported in the inbred horse, Thoroughbred horse. We first discovered four SPRN single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 141 Jeju and 88 Halla horses by direct DNA sequencing. In addition, we found that the g...
Salek Ardestani S, Aminafshar M, Zandi Baghche Maryam MB, Banabazi MH, Sargolzaei M, Miar Y.Selective breeding has led to gradual changes at the genome level of horses. Deciphering selective pressure patterns is progressive to understand how breeding strategies have shaped the sport horse genome; although, little is known about the genomic regions under selective pressures in sport horse breeds. The major goal of this study was to shed light on genomic regions and biological pathways under selective pressures in sport horses. In this study, whole-genome sequences of 16 modern sport and 35 non-sport horses were used to investigate the genomic selective signals of sport performance, by...
El-Sheikh Ali H, Legacki EL, Loux SC, Esteller-Vico A, Dini P, Scoggin KE, Conley AJ, Stanley SD, Ball BA.The current study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying myometrial activation during equine placentitis related to progestogens and the progesterone receptor signaling pathways. Placentitis was induced via intracervical inoculation with Streptococcus equi ssp zooepidemicus in mares at approximately 290 days of gestation (placentitis group; n = 6) with uninoculated gestationally matched mares as controls (n = 4). Mares in the placentitis and control groups were euthanized, and myometrial samples were collected from two regions: region 1-parallel to active placentitis lesion with plac...
Morozova-Roche LA.Calcium-binding equine lysozyme (EL) combines the structural and folding properties of c-type lysozymes and alpha-lactalbumins, connecting these two most studied subfamilies. The structural insight into its native and partially folded states is particularly illuminating in revealing the general principles of protein folding, amyloid formation and its inhibition. Among lysozymes EL forms one of the most stable molten globules and shows the most uncooperative refolding kinetics. Its partially-folded states serve as precursors for calcium-dependent self-assembly into ring-shaped and linear amyloi...
Kornaś S, Sallé G, Skalska M, David I, Ricard A, Cabaret J.Equine internal parasites, mostly cyathostomins, affect both horse welfare and performance. The appearance of anthelmintic-resistant parasites creates a pressing need for optimising drenching schemes. This optimization may be achieved by identifying genetic markers associated with host susceptibility to infection and then to drench carriers of these markers. The aim of our study was to characterise the genetics of horse resistance to strongyle infection by estimating heritability of this trait in an Arabian pure blood population. A population of 789 Arabian pure blood horses from the Michałó...
Csizmár N, Mihók S, Jávor A, Kusza S.The Hungarian draft is a horse breed with a recent mixed ancestry created in the 1920s by crossing local mares with draught horses imported from France and Belgium. The interest in its conservation and characterization has increased over the last few years. The aim of this work is to contribute to the characterization of the endangered Hungarian heavy draft horse populations in order to obtain useful information to implement conservation strategies for these genetic stocks. Methods: To genetically characterize the breed and to set up the basis for a conservation program, in the present study a...
Pereira GR, Lorenzo PL, Carneiro GF, Ball BA, Gonçalves PB, Pegoraro LM, Bilodeau-Goeseels S, Kastelic JP, Casey PJ, Liu IK.The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that equine growth hormone (eGH), in combination with insulin growth factor-I (IGF-I), influences positively in vitro nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation of equine oocytes. Cumulus-oocyte complexes were recovered from follicles that were < 25 mm in diameter, characterized by morphology and were allocated randomly as follow: (a) control (no additives); (b) 400 ng/ml eGH; (c) 200 ng/ml IGF-I; (d) eGH + IGF-I; and (e) eGH + IGF-I + 400 ng/ml anti-IGF-I antibody. Oocytes were matured for 30 h at 38.5°C in air with 5% CO2 and then stained wi...
