Mitochondria are organelles found in the cells of horses that are responsible for producing energy through the process of oxidative phosphorylation. They play a role in various cellular functions, including energy metabolism, regulation of the cell cycle, and apoptosis. Mitochondria contain their own DNA, which is maternally inherited and can provide insights into genetic lineage and population studies in equines. Research on equine mitochondria encompasses topics such as mitochondrial function, genetic variation, and their implications for health and performance. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the structure, function, and genetic aspects of mitochondria in horses.
Martino NA, Dell'Aquila ME, Filioli Uranio M, Rutigliano L, Nicassio M, Lacalandra GM, Hinrichs K.Evaluation of mitochondrial function offers an alternative to evaluate embryo development for assessment of oocyte viability, but little information is available on the relationship between mitochondrial and chromatin status in equine oocytes. We evaluated these parameters in immature equine oocytes either fixed immediately (IMM) or held overnight in an Earle's/Hank's' M199-based medium in the absence of meiotic inhibitors (EH treatment), and in mature oocytes. We hypothesized that EH holding may affect mitochondrial function and that holding temperature may affect the efficiency of meiotic su...
Yeste M, Estrada E, Rocha LG, Marín H, Rodríguez-Gil JE, Miró J.Although cryopreservation of stallion spermatozoa allows long-term preservation of spermatozoa from particular stallions and facilitates international trade, it is understood to inflict damages on sperm cells that may finally reduce their fertilizing ability. In addition, individual differences are known to exist in the sperm ability to withstand freeze-thawing protocols. To date, these differences have mainly been reported on the basis of sperm motility and membrane integrity. For this reason, the present work sought to determine differences between good (good freezability ejaculates: GFE) an...
Wang W, Zhang D, Hu D, Chu H, Cao J, Ente M, Jiang G, Li K.Gasterophilosis is a significant threat to equids in the desert steppe of Xinjiang, China, where Gasterophilus pecorum (Fabricius) (Diptera: Gasterophilidae) is the dominant botfly species. A population analysis was conducted on 195 individual G. pecorum larvae from three host species, Przewalski's horse, the domestic horse and the Asiatic wild ass. The distribution of haplotypes of the maternally inherited mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was analysed to assess the population differentiation of G. pecorum. High haplotype diversity was observed among G. pecorum popul...
Gibb Z, Lambourne SR, Aitken RJ.The relationship between stallion fertility and oxidative stress remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to identify criteria for thoroughbred fertility assessment by performing a logistical regression analysis using "dismount" sperm parameters as predictors and weekly per-cycle conception rate as the dependent variable. Paradoxically, positive relationships between fertility and oxidative stress were revealed, such that samples that produced pregnancies exhibited higher rates of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine release (1490.2% vs. 705.5 pg/ml/24 h) and lower vitality (60.5% vs. 6...
Takasu M, Ishihara N, Tozaki T, Kakoi H, Maeda M, Mukoyama H.To determine genetic characteristics of the maternal lineage of the Kiso horse based on polymorphisms of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop region, we collected blood samples from 136 Kiso horses, 91% of the entire population, and sequenced 411 bp from 15,437 to 15,847 in the region. First of all, we estimated the demographic history; by searching homology between the obtained and known sequences using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, by mismatch analysis to evaluate the mutation processes using Arlequin, and by building a phylogenetic tree showing the relationship of the mtDNA haplotypes for 24 h...
Gallardo Bolaños JM, Balao da Silva C, Martín Muñoz P, Plaza Dávila M, Ezquerra J, Aparicio IM, Tapia JA, Ortega Ferrusola C, Peña FJ.To investigate the mechanisms inducing sperm death after ejaculation, stallion ejaculates were incubated in BWW media during 6 h at 37°C. At the beginning of the incubation period and after 1, 2, 4 and 6 h sperm motility and kinematics (CASA), mitochondrial membrane potential and membrane permeability and integrity were evaluated (flow cytometry). Also, at the same time intervals, active caspase 3, hydrogen peroxide, superoxide anion (flow cytometry) and Akt phosphorylation (flow cytometry) were evaluated. Major decreases in sperm function occurred after 6 h of incubation, although after 1 h ...
Gallardo Bolaños JM, Balao da Silva CM, Martín Muñoz P, Morillo Rodríguez A, Plaza Dávila M, Rodríguez-Martínez H, Aparicio IM, Tapia JA....AKT, also referred to as protein kinase B (PKB or RAC), plays a critical role in controlling cell survival and apoptosis. To gain insights into the mechanisms regulating sperm survival after ejaculation, the role of AKT was investigated in stallion spermatozoa using a specific inhibitor and a phosphoflow approach. Stallion spermatozoa were washed and incubated in Biggers-Whitten-Whittingham medium, supplemented with 1% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in the presence of 0 (vehicle), 10, 20 or 30 μM SH5, an AKT inhibitor. SH5 treatment reduced the percentage of sperm displaying AKT phosphorylation, w...
Choi YH, Ritthaler J, Hinrichs K.Cloned animals possess mitochondria derived from the host ooplast, which typically differ genetically from those of the donor. This is of special concern to horse breeders, as maternal lines are prized and athletic performance is a key factor in genetic value. To evaluate the feasibility of producing mitochondrial-identical cloned foals, we collected oocytes from immature follicles of two mares, BL and SM, maternally related to the donor stallion. In vitro matured, enucleated oocytes were treated with roscovitine-synchronized donor cells and blastocysts were transferred transcervically to reci...
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 ...
Song SD, Barker SC, Shao R.The genus Haematopinus contains 21 species of blood-sucking lice, parasitizing both even-toed ungulates (pigs, cattle, buffalo, antelopes, camels and deer) and odd-toed ungulates (horses, donkeys and zebras). The mitochondrial genomes of the domestic pig louse, Haematopinus suis, and the wild pig louse, Haematopinus apri, have been sequenced recently; both lice have fragmented mitochondrial genomes with 37 genes on nine minichromosomes. To understand whether the composition of mitochondrial minichromosomes and the gene content and gene arrangement of each minichromosome are stable within the g...
Desjardin C, Chat S, Gilles M, Legendre R, Riviere J, Mata X, Balliau T, Esquerré D, Cribiu EP, Betch JM, Schibler L.Osteochondrosis (OC) is a developmental bone disorder affecting several mammalian species including the horse. Equine OC is described as a focal disruption of endochondral ossification, leading to osteochondral lesions (osteochondritis dissecans, OCD) that may release free bodies within the joint. OCD lesions trigger joint swelling, stiffness and lameness and affects about 30% of the equine population. OCD is considered as multifactorial but its physiopathology is still poorly understood and genes involved in genetic predisposition are still unknown. Our study compared two healthy and two OC-a...
Rambags BP, van Boxtel DC, Tharasanit T, Lenstra JA, Colenbrander B, Stout TA.In many mammalian species, reproductive success decreases with maternal age. One proposed contributor to this age-related decrease in fertility is a reduction in the quantity or functionality of mitochondria in oocytes. This study examined whether maternal age or (in vitro maturation). IVM affect the quantity of mitochondria in equine oocytes. Oocytes were collected from the ovaries of slaughtered mares categorized as young (<12 years) or aged (≥12 years) and either denuded and prepared for analysis immediately (not-IVM) or matured in vitro for 30 hours before preparation (IVM). The m...
Zhao Q, Kang Y, Pu Y, Niu L, Guan W, He X, Zhang H, Lim H, Ma Y, Zhong T.Heteroplasmy, the presence of bi-allelic mtDNA types within an individual, has been previously detected in the D-loop region and Cytochrome b gene (Cytb) of mitochondrial DNA using PCR-RFLP. However, heteroplasmy was absent in thousands of equine mtDNA sequences deposited in GenBank. To address whether heteroplasmy widely exists in mitochondria of Chinese indigenous horses, we generated the data set of the target sites in Cytb region with Sanger sequencing and PCR-RFLP method as well. In this study, 23 heteroplasmic individuals were detected in 430 Chinese local horses. Both site and length he...
Potocki L, Lewinska A, Klukowska-Rötzler J, Bielak-Zmijewska A, Grabowska W, Rzeszutek I, Kaminska P, Roga E, Bugno-Poniewierska M, Slota E....Bovine papillomavirus 1 (BPV-1) is a well recognized etiopathogenetic factor in a cancer-like state in horses, namely equine sarcoid disease. Nevertheless, little is known about BPV-1-mediated cell transforming effects. It was shown that BPV-1 triggers genomic instability through DNA hypomethylation and oxidative stress. In the present study, we further characterized BPV-1-positive fibroblasts derived from sarcoid tumors. The focus was on cancer-like features of sarcoid-derived fibroblasts, including cell cycle perturbation, comprehensive DNA damage analysis, end-replication problem, energy me...
Devi KM, Ghosh SK.Manipuri pony is the geographically distant breed of horse from the five recognized horse breeds found in the Indian subcontinent. The phylogenetic relationship of Manipuri pony with the other breeds is unknown. The diversity in the mitochondrial (mt) DNA D-loop region is employed as an important tool to understand the origin and genetic diversification of domestic horses and to examine genetic relationships among breeds around the world. This study was carried out to understand the maternal lineages of Manipuri pony using the 247 bp region of the mtDNA D-loop. The dataset comprised of eleven ...
Ceusters JD, Mouithys-Mickalad AA, Franck TJ, Deby-Dupont GP, Derochette S, Serteyn DA.Horses are outstanding athletes, performing in many different disciplines involving different kinds of efforts and metabolic responses. Depending on exercise intensity, their skeletal muscle oxygenation decreases, and the reperfusion at cessation of the exercise can cause excessive production of free radicals. This study on cultured primary equine myoblasts investigated the effect of different kinds of anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R) on routine respiration, mitochondrial complex I specific activity and free radicals production. Our data revealed that short cycles of A/R caused a decrease of all the...
Khanshour AM, Cothran EG.Maternal inheritance is an essential point in Arabian horse population genetics and strains classification. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing is a highly informative tool to investigate maternal lineages. We sequenced the whole mtDNA D-loop of 251 Arabian horses to study the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Arabian populations and to examine the traditional strain classification system that depends on maternal family lines using native Arabian horses from the Middle East. Results: The variability in the upstream region of the D-loop revealed additional differences amo...
Liu G, Xu CQ, Cao Q, Zimmermann W, Songer M, Zhao SS, Li K, Hu DF.Przewalski's horses have been imported from the western zoos to China since 1985. Yet the genetic diversity in China's populations has not been studied, thus lacking of such knowledge inevitably affects this population's management. The aim of this study was to assess genetic diversity in Chinese population of Przewalski's horses via mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and pedigree analysis. Methods: Two captive and one reintroduced populations were examined based on mitochondrial DNA control region variation via fecal sampling from 2010 to 2012, together with pedigree analysis. Results: ...
Meyer W, Kacza J, Hornickel IN, Schoennagel B.Using immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the esophagus epithelia of seven domesticated mammals (horse, cattle, goat, pig, dog, laboratory rat, cat) of three nutrition groups (herbivorous, omnivorous, carnivorous) were studied to get first information about energy generation, as demonstrated by succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activities. Distinct reaction intensities could be observed in all esophageal cell layers of the different species studied reflecting moderate to strong metabolic activities. The generally strong staining in the stratum basale indicated that new...
Bohar Topolovec M, Kruljc P, Prošek M, Jazbec Križman P, Smidovnik A, Nemec Svete A.Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an essential cofactor in the mitochondrial electron transport pathway, and is also the only known endogenously synthesized lipid-soluble antioxidant. The aim of the present study was to determine, for the first time, endogenous plasma CoQ10 concentration and its correlation with plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and serum total cholesterol (TC) in a population of healthy untrained horses. Thirty-one horses were included in the study. Plasma CoQ10 concentration ranged from 0.380 to 2.090 mg/L, which is in general agreement with plasma CoQ10 concentration in humans....
Vilstrup JT, Seguin-Orlando A, Stiller M, Ginolhac A, Raghavan M, Nielsen SC, Weinstock J, Froese D, Vasiliev SK, Ovodov ND, Clary J, Helgen KM....The genus Equus is richly represented in the fossil record, yet our understanding of taxonomic relationships within this genus remains limited. To estimate the phylogenetic relationships among modern horses, zebras, asses and donkeys, we generated the first data set including complete mitochondrial sequences from all seven extant lineages within the genus Equus. Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic inference confirms that zebras are monophyletic within the genus, and the Plains and Grevy's zebras form a well-supported monophyletic group. Using ancient DNA techniques, we further charact...
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...
Choi YH, Norris JD, Velez IC, Jacobson CC, Hartman DL, Hinrichs K.The presence of heterogenous mitochondria from the host ooplast affects the acceptance of offspring obtained by somatic cell nuclear transfer. This might be avoided by obtaining oocytes from selected females, but is then complicated by low numbers of available oocytes. We examined the efficiency of equine somatic cell nuclear transfer using oocytes recovered by transvaginal aspiration of immature follicles from 11 mares. Use of metaphase I oocytes as cytoplasts and of scriptaid (a histone deacetylase inhibitor) treatment during oocyte activation were evaluated to determine if these approaches ...
Ceusters JD, Mouithys-Mickalad AA, Franck TJ, Derochette S, Vanderplasschen A, Deby-Dupont GP, Serteyn DA.Horses are particularly sensitive to excessive inflammatory reaction where myeloperoxidase, a marker of inflammation, may contribute to mitochondrial dysfunctions. This study investigated the interaction between myeloperoxidase and cultured primary equine skeletal myoblasts, particularly its effect on mitochondrial respiration combined or not with anoxia followed by reoxygenation (AR). We showed that active myeloperoxidase entered into the cells, interacted with mitochondria and decreased routine and maximal respirations. When combined with AR, myeloperoxidase caused a further decrease of thes...
Aitken RJ, Gibb Z, Mitchell LA, Lambourne SR, Connaughton HS, De Iuliis GN.The prolonged incubation of human spermatozoa in vitro was found to induce a loss of motility associated with the activation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation in the absence of any change in mitochondrial membrane potential. The increase in mitochondrial free radical production was paralleled by a loss of protein thiols and a concomitant rise in the formation of 4-hydroxynonenal, an electrophilic product of lipid peroxidation that was found to directly suppress sperm movement. These results prompted a search for nucleophiles that could counteract the action of such cytotoxic ...
Milner PI, Smith HC, Robinson R, Wilkins RJ, Gibson JS.Hypoxia and acidosis are recognized features of inflammatory arthroses. This study describes the effects of IGF-1 and TGF-β(1) on pH regulatory mechanisms in articular cartilage under hypoxic conditions. Acid efflux, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and mitochondrial membrane potential were measured in equine articular chondrocytes isolated in the presence of serum (10% fetal calf serum), IGF-1 (1, 10, 50, 100 ng/ml) or TGF-β(1) (0.1, 1, 10 ng/ml) and then exposed to a short-term (3 h) hypoxic insult (1% O(2)). Serum and 100 ng/ml IGF-1 but not TGF-β(1) attenuated hypoxic regulation of pH hom...
Steiner CC, Mitelberg A, Tursi R, Ryder OA.Short divergence times and processes such as incomplete lineage sorting and species hybridization are known to hinder the inference of species-level phylogenies due to the lack of sufficient informative genetic variation or the presence of shared but incongruent polymorphism among taxa. Extant equids (horses, zebras, and asses) are an example of a recently evolved group of mammals with an unresolved phylogeny, despite a large number of molecular studies. Previous surveys have proposed trees with rather poorly supported nodes, and the bias caused by genetic introgression or ancestral polymorphi...
Bower MA, Whitten M, Nisbet RE, Spencer M, Dominy KM, Murphy AM, Cassidy R, Barrett E, Hill EW, Binns M.The potential future earnings and therefore value of Thoroughbred foals untested in the racing arena are calculated based on the performance of their forebears. Thus, lineage is of key importance. However, previous research indicates that maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) does not correspond to maternal lineage according to recorded pedigree, casting doubt on the voracity of historic pedigrees. We analysed mtDNA of 296 Thoroughbred horses from 33 maternal lineages and identified an interesting trend. Subsequent to the founding of the Thoroughbred breed in the 16th century, well-po...
Zhang T, Lu H, Chen C, Jiang H, Wu S.In order to protect the genetic resource of native horse breeds, the genetic diversity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop of three native horse breeds in western China were investigated. Forty-three 600 bp mtDNA D-loop sequences were analyzed by PCR and sequencing techniques, 33 unique haplotypes with 70 polymorphic sites were detected in these horses, which account for 11.67% of 600 bp sequence analyzed, showing the abundant genetic diversity of the three native horse breeds in western China. The Neighbour-Joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree based on 247 bp of 43 D-loop sequences demonstrated the...
Moridi M, Masoudi AA, Vaez Torshizi R, Hill EW.To understand the origin and genetic diversity of Iranian native horses, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences were generated for 95 horses from five breeds sampled in eight geographical locations in Iran. Sequence analysis of a 247-bp segment revealed a total of 27 haplotypes with 38 polymorphic sites. Twelve of 19 mtDNA haplogroups were identified in the samples. The most common haplotypes were found within haplogroup X2. Within-population haplotype and nucleotide diversities of the five breeds ranged from 0.838 ± 0.056 to 0.974 ± 0.022 and 0.011 ± 0.002 to 0.021 ± 0.001 res...
Al-Kass Z, Spergser J, Aurich C, Kuhl J, Schmidt K, Johannisson A, Morrell JM.Contamination of semen with bacteria arises during semen collection and handling. This bacterial contamination is typically controlled by adding antibiotics to semen extenders but intensive usage of antibiotics can lead to the development of bacterial resistance and may be detrimental to sperm quality. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of antibiotics in a semen extender on sperm quality and to investigate the effects of removal of bacteria by modified Single Layer Centrifugation (MSLC) through a colloid. Semen was collected from six adult pony stallions (three ejaculates...
Liu GH, Li JY, Zhu XQ.Setaria digitata is a filarial parasite that causes fatal cerebrospinal nematodiasis in goats, horses and sheep, resulting in substantial economic losses to livestock farmers. In the present study, the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of S. digitata from China was determined, characterized and compared with that of S. digitata from Sri Lanka. The identity of the mt genomes was 98.3% between S. digitata from China and Sri Lanka, and the complete mt genome sequence of S. digitata from China was slightly shorter (25 bp) than that from Sri Lanka. For the 12 protein genes, this comparison reveal...
Hendriks WK, Roelen BA, Colenbrander B, Stout TA.Equine embryos are cryopreserved by slow-freezing or vitrification. While small embryos (<300 μm) survive cryopreservation reasonably well, larger embryos do not. It is not clear if slow-freezing or vitrification is less damaging to horse embryos. Objective: To compare the type and extent of cellular damage suffered by small and large embryos during cryopreservation by slow-freezing vs. vitrification. Methods: Sixty-three Day 6.5-7 embryos were subdivided by size and assigned to one of 5 treatments: control, exposure to slow-freezing or vitrification cryoprotectants (CPs), and cryopreser...
Podico G, Canisso IF.This study aimed to assess the parameters of epididymal sperm harvested by retrograde flushing (RF) followed by slicing float-up (SF). Epididymides from donkeys (n = 18) and horses (n = 28) were subjected to RF with a freezing extender and then SF technique. The retrieved sperm after RF and SF was evaluated for volume, concentration, and total sperm and then cryopreserved separately. Post-thaw total motility (TM) and progressive motility (PM) were evaluated with CASA. Sperm membrane integrity (SMI) and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were assessed with flow cytometry. Sperm concentratio...
Delsol N, Stucky BJ, Oswald JA, Reitz EJ, Emery KF, Guralnick R.Unlike other European domesticates introduced in the Americas after the European invasion, equids (Equidae) were previously in the Western Hemisphere but were extinct by the late Holocene era. The return of equids to the Americas through the introduction of the domestic horse (Equus caballus) is documented in the historical literature but is not explored fully either archaeologically or genetically. Historical documents suggest that the first domestic horses were brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caribbean in the late 15th century CE, but archaeological remains of these early introduct...
Wuri L, Agca C, Agca Y.This study compared the morphometric, subcellular characteristics, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and embryonic developmental potential of metaphase II (MII) mouse oocytes obtained from females superovulated with either anti-inhibin serum-human chorionic gonadotrophin (AIS-hCG) or pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG)-hCG. The oocyte's quantity, quality, zona pellucida (ZP) thickness, perivitelline space (PVS), diameter, microtubules, F-actin, cortical granules (CGs) and mitochondrial distribution were determined. Superovulation using AIS-hCG resulted in a higher numbers of oocyte/donor compa...
Eckert RE, Neuder LE, Bell JL, Trujillo JC, Jones SL.The goal of this study was to define the role for p38 mitogen-activated kinase (MAPK) in the signaling mechanism regulating pro-inflammatory cyclooxygenase (COX) gene expression in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated equine leukocytes for the purposes of identifying novel targets for anti-inflammatory therapy in endotoxemic horses. The p38 MAPK has been shown to positively regulate inflammatory gene expression in human leukocytes and can be activated by a variety of stimuli including LPS, TNF-alpha, and IL-1. Activation-associated phosphorylated p38 MAPK has been implicated in the up-regulation...
Wu S, Canisso IF, Yang W, Ul Haq I, Liu Q, Han Y, Zeng S.This study aimed to investigate the effects of different concentrations of 1,2-bis-(o-aminophenoxy)-ethane-N,N,N0 N0-tetraacetic acid, tetra-acetoxymethyl ester (BAPTA-AM), an intracellular calcium chelating agent, on stallion semen cooling and freezing-thawing. After collection, semen was extended (1:1 v/v) on a skim milk-based extender, centrifuged and resuspended at 400 million/ml into cooling or freezing extenders containing 0, 5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 μΜ BAPTA-AM. Motility parameters were assessed after cooling in Equitainer at 5°C for 12, 24, 48, 72 and 120 hr and after freezing-tha...
Koban E, Denizci M, Aslan O, Aktoprakligil D, Aksu S, Bower M, Balcioglu BK, Ozdemir Bahadir A, Bilgin R, Erdag B, Bagis H, Arat S.The horse has been a food source, but more importantly, it has been a means for transport. Its domestication was one of the crucial steps in the history of human civilization. Despite the archaeological and molecular studies carried out on the history of horse domestication, which would contribute to conservation of the breeds, the details of the domestication of horses still remain to be resolved. We employed 21 microsatellite loci and mitochondrial control region partial sequences to analyse genetic variability within and among four Anatolian native horse breeds, Ayvacık Pony, Malakan Horse...
Kang Z, Shi J, Liu T, Zhang Y, Zhang Q, Liu Z, Wang J, Cheng S.The study investigated the origin of the Akhal-Teke horse using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data and mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 (HVR-1) nucleotide sequences. Methods: Genome-wide SNP data from 22 breeds (481 horses) and mitochondrial HVR-1 sequences from 24 breeds (544 sequences) worldwide to examine the origin of the Akhal- Teke horse. The data were analyzed using principal component analysis, linkage disequilibrium analysis, neighbor-joining dendrograms, and ancestry inference to determine the population relationships, ancestral source, genetic structure, and r...
Priskin K, Szabó K, Tömöry G, Bogácsi-Szabó E, Csányi B, Eördögh R, Downes CS, Raskó I.Movements of human populations leave their traces in the genetic makeup of the areas affected; the same applies to the horses that move with their owners This study is concerned with the mitochondrial control region genotypes of 31 archaeological horse remains, excavated from pre-conquest Avar and post-conquest Hungarian burial sites in the Carpathian Basin dating from the sixth to the tenth century. To investigate relationships to other ancient and recent breeds, modern Hucul and Akhal Teke samples were also collected, and mtDNA control region (CR) sequences from 76 breeds representing 921 in...
Kornicka-Garbowska K, Groborz S, Lynda B, Galuppo L, Marycz K.Synovitis (SI) is one of the most common and serious orthopedic diseases in horses of different age, breed and sex, which contributes to the development of osteoarthritis. The burden of SI includes economic loss and represents a real challenge for current veterinary health care. At the molecular level, fibroblasts-like synoviocytes (FLS) are recognized as major cell populations involved in SI pathogenesis. In the course of SI, FLSs are losing their protective and pro-regenerative cytological features, become highly proliferative and initiate various stress signaling pathways. Fibroblast-like s...
Marques C, da Silva B, Nogueira Y, Bezerra T, Tavares A, Borges-Silva W, Gondim L.The protozoan (syn. ) infects horses and has dogs as definitive hosts. Herein we aimed to detect in Brazilian horses destined for human consumption and to determine the frequency of infection in the examined animals. Muscle fragments from 51 horses were collected in a slaughterhouse in Bahia State during three different seasons of the year. Samples from six tissues from each animal were prepared for macroscopic and microscopic evaluation, using tissue grinding, squash and histology. sp. was observed in 100% of the examined horses. Selected samples were processed for transmission electron mi...
Hudson W.Egyptian Arabian horses have been maintained in a state of genetic isolation for over a hundred years. There is only limited genetic proof that the studbook records of female lines of Egyptian Arabian pedigrees are reliable. This study characterized the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) signatures of 126 horses representing 14 matrilines in the Egyptian Agricultural Organization (EAO) horse-breeding program. Results: Analysis of the whole D-loop sequence yielded additional information compared to hypervariable region-1 (HVR1) analysis alone, with 42 polymorphic sites representing ten haplotypes compar...
Cummings JF, Fubini SL, Todhunter RJ.Digital neurectomies, performed to relieve pain and lameness, are often complicated postoperatively by formation of painful neuromas. In this study attempts were made to deliver lethal doses of neurotoxin to the cell bodies of the transected digital nerve fibres via long-distance retrograde axon transport and, thereby, prevent the regenerative changes that lead to neuroma formation. After applying doxorubicin in various ways to the digital nerve stumps of ponies, degenerating or necrotic neurones appeared only sporadically in the spinal ganglia. Although doxorubicin was largely ineffective in ...
De Coster T, Velez DA, Van Soom A, Woelders H, Smits K.Invitro embryo production has evolved rapidly in the horse over the past decade, but blastocyst rates from vitrified equine oocytes remain quite poor and further research is needed to warrant application. Oocyte vitrification is affected by several technical and biological factors. In the horse, short exposure of immature oocytes to the combination of permeating and non-permeating cryoprotective agents has been associated with the best results so far. High cooling and warming rates are also crucial and can be obtained by using minimal volumes and open cryodevices. Vitrification of invivo-matur...
Potocki L, Lewinska A, Klukowska-Rötzler J, Bielak-Zmijewska A, Grabowska W, Rzeszutek I, Kaminska P, Roga E, Bugno-Poniewierska M, Slota E....Bovine papillomavirus 1 (BPV-1) is a well recognized etiopathogenetic factor in a cancer-like state in horses, namely equine sarcoid disease. Nevertheless, little is known about BPV-1-mediated cell transforming effects. It was shown that BPV-1 triggers genomic instability through DNA hypomethylation and oxidative stress. In the present study, we further characterized BPV-1-positive fibroblasts derived from sarcoid tumors. The focus was on cancer-like features of sarcoid-derived fibroblasts, including cell cycle perturbation, comprehensive DNA damage analysis, end-replication problem, energy me...
Bourebaba L, Zyzak M, Sikora M, Serwotka-Suszczak A, Mularczyk M, Al Naem M, Marycz K.Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) deteriorated expression has been recently strongly correlated to increased level of circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines and insulin resistance, which are typical manifestations of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). Despite previous reports demonstrated the potential therapeutic application of SHBG for liver-related dysfunctions, whether SHBG might modulate equine adipose-derived stem/stromal cells (EqASCs) metabolic machinery remains unknown. Therefore, we evaluated for the first time the impact of SHBG protein on metabolic changes in ASCs isolated from hea...
Catalán J, Yánez-Ortiz I, Gacem S, Papas M, Bonet S, Rodríguez-Gil JE, Yeste M, Miró J.Previous research has determined that irradiation of mammalian sperm with red light increases motility, mitochondrial activity, and fertilization capacity. In spite of this, no study has considered the potential influence of the color of the straw and the extender used. Therefore, this study tests the hypothesis that the response of mammalian sperm to red light is influenced by the color of the straw and the turbidity/composition of the extender. Using the horse as a model, 13 ejaculates from 13 stallions were split into two equal fractions, diluted with Kenney or Equiplus extender, and stored...
Orsztynowicz M, Pawlak P, Podstawski Z, Nizanski W, Partyka A, Gotowiecka M, Kosiniak-Kamysz K, Lechniak D.Predicting male fertility on non-invasive sperm traits is of big importance to human and animal reproduction strategies. Combining the wide range of parameters monitored by computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) with some molecular traits (e.g. mtDNA content) may help to identify markers of the male fertility. The aim of this study was to characterize variation in the mtDNA copy number in equine sperm and to investigate whether mtDNA content is correlated with quality traits of stallion spermatozoa and the age of the male. Ejaculates collected from 53 fertile stallions were divided into four ...
Mathis D, Sass JO, Graubner C, Schoster A.Atypical myopathy (AM), an acquired multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD) in horses, induce changes in mitochondrial metabolism. Only few veterinary laboratories offer diagnostic testing for this disease. Inborn and acquired MADD exist in humans, therefore determination of organic acids (OA) in urine and acylcarnitines (AC) in blood by assays available in medical laboratories can serve as AM diagnostics. The evolution of OA and AC profiles in surviving horses is unreported. Methods: AC profiles using electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) and OA in urine using...
Owen RN, Semanchik PL, Latham CM, Brennan KM, White-Springer SH.Maintenance of mitochondrial health, which is supported in part by dietary antioxidants such as selenium (Se) and vitamin E (vitE), is pertinent to optimizing athletic performance. Deficiencies in Se and vitE negatively impact muscle health but mitochondrial adaptations to various levels of dietary Se and vitE are poorly understood. Young Quarter Horses (mean ± SD: 17.6 ± 0.9 mo) undergoing submaximal exercise training were used to test the hypothesis that a proprietary antioxidant blend containing elevated Se yeast (EconomasE, Alltech, Inc., Nicholasville, KY) would improve mitochondrial ch...
Myćka G, Klecel W, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Jaworska J, Musiał AD, Ropka-Molik K.The Polish draft horse (PDH) breed is a result of crossing local mares with imported cold-blooded stallions, such as Belgians, Ardennes, Fjords, and others. A part of the broodmare stock investigated in this study was also imported from various countries, such as Denmark. In this study, we investigate the genetic composition of the PDH by analyzing the whole mitochondrial d-loop variability and comparing it to previously demonstrated whole d-loop sequences of other cold-blooded breeds: Ardennais, Belgian, Breton, Clydesdale, Noriker, Norwegian Fjord, Percheron, and Suffolk. Our results show hi...
Jung YH, Han SH, Shin T, Oh MY.We determined the nucleotide sequences of the hypervariable D-loop region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from horse bone (humerus, A.D. 700 to A.D. 800) that was excavated from the Kwakji archaeological site, Jeju, Korea. We compared them with ones from extant horses. We designed three pairs of oligonucleotide primers from the tRNA-Thr and tRNA-Phe gene regions of mtDNA that are highly conserved among many other animal species. We cloned 232, 336, and 644 bp from the horse bone in order to determine the mtDNA D-loop sequence. The sequence was 1,124 bp long; the middle contained 19 tandem repeats...
Barrón-Ortiz CI, Rodrigues AT, Theodor JM, Kooyman BP, Yang DY, Speller CF.Horses were a dominant component of North American Pleistocene land mammal communities and their remains are well represented in the fossil record. Despite the abundant material available for study, there is still considerable disagreement over the number of species of Equus that inhabited the different regions of the continent and on their taxonomic nomenclature. In this study, we investigated cheek tooth morphology and ancient mtDNA of late Pleistocene Equus specimens from the Western Interior of North America, with the objective of clarifying the species that lived in this region prior to t...
Vorobieva NV, Makunin AI, Druzhkova AS, Kusliy MA, Trifonov VA, Popova KO, Polosmak NV, Molodin VI, Vasiliev SK, Shunkov MV, Graphodatsky AS.A growing number of researchers studying horse domestication come to a conclusion that this process happened in multiple locations and involved multiple wild maternal lines. The most promising approach to address this problem involves mitochondrial haplotype comparison of wild and domestic horses from various locations coupled with studies of possible migration routes of the ancient shepherds. Here, we sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes of six horses from burials of the Ukok plateau (Russia, Altai Mountains) dated from 2.7 to 1.4 thousand years before present and a single late Pleistocen...
Sild E, Värv S, Kaart T, Kantanen J, Popov R, Viinalass H.The maternal and paternal genetic variation of horse breeds from the Baltic Sea region, including three local Estonian breeds, was assessed and compared with that of Altai and Yakutian horses. In the mtDNA D-loop region, 72 haplotypes assigned to 20 haplogroups in the nine breeds were detected. In Estonian local breeds, 38 mtDNA haplotypes were found, and five of them were shared by the three breeds. More than 60% of all identified haplotypes were rare. Compared with the Estonian Native and Estonian Heavy Draught breeds, a higher haplotypic diversity was found in the Tori breed (h = 0.969). ...
Lancioni H, Cardinali I, Giontella A, Antognoni MT, Miglio A.In the last decades, Italy as well as other developed countries have registered a decrease in the population size of many local horse breeds. The continuous crossbreeding has determined the dilution of genetic heritage of several native breeds. The Italian Heavy Draught Horse (IHD) is the only autochthonous Italian coldblooded horse among these breeds; therefore, it represents a resource to be preserved. In 1927, the first generation of this breed was officially created by crossing different Heavy Draught horses with local mares and recorded in a Studbook. Methods: To provide the first compreh...
Yuan JX, Hou XD, Barlow A, Preick M, Taron UH, Alberti F, Basler N, Deng T, Lai XL, Hofreiter M, Sheng GL.The extant diversity of horses (family Equidae) represents a small fraction of that occurring over their evolutionary history. One such lost lineage is the subgenus Sussemionus, which is thought to have become extinct during the Middle Pleistocene. However, recent molecular studies and morphological analysis have revealed that one of their representatives, E. ovodovi, did exist in Siberia during the Late Pleistocene. Fossil materials of E. ovodovi have thus far only been found in Russia. In this study, we extracted DNA from three equid fossil specimens excavated from northeastern China dated a...
Nimmo MA, Snow DH.To ascertain the effects of sprint and endurance exercise on the time course of skeletal muscle mitochondrial changes, an ultrastructural study was conducted on four Thoroughbred horses. Skeletal muscle biopsies were taken at various intervals during and after the exercise. Transient mitochondrial alterations of varying degrees were observed following both types of exercise and were considered to be related to the development of fatigue. The degree of distortion of mitochondrial structure is considered not to represent the in vivo condition but the state of responsiveness to the fixation mediu...
