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.
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...
Głażewska I, Prusak B, Gralak B.The goal of this study was to demonstrate the usefulness of pedigree data in studies of mitochondrial DNA diversity in dogs and horses. Pedigree information allows for precisely choosing animals with distinct haplotypes for analysis, makes it possible to find rare haplotypes present exclusively in single individuals and helps to evaluate haplotype frequencies at the present and in the past. Estimating founder contributions to gene pools enables evaluating the parts of gene pools observed with the help of mtDNA analysis. An important aspect is also the financial benefits: using pedigree data, r...
González-Fernández L, Morrell JM, Peña FJ, Macías-García B.The present study aimed to elucidate the effects that osmotic shock exerts on equine spermatozoa. To achieve this goal, a retrospective study of the cellular volume of 40 equine ejaculates subjected to osmolarities ranging from 75 to 900 mOsm in Biggers-Whitten-Whittingham (BWW) media was performed using a Multisizer3 Coulter Counter®. The 300 mOsm BWW solution was used as control. The sperm volume ranged between 37.93±0.6 (mean±Standard Error of the Mean (SEM)) in 75 mOsm BWW to 21.61±0.27 (mean±SEM) for 900 mOsm BWW. Thus the spermatozoa behaved as linear osmometers when adjusted to the...
Votion DM, Gnaiger E, Lemieux H, Mouithys-Mickalad A, Serteyn D.Within the animal kingdom, horses are among the most powerful aerobic athletic mammals. Determination of muscle respiratory capacity and control improves our knowledge of mitochondrial physiology in horses and high aerobic performance in general. Results: We applied high-resolution respirometry and multiple substrate-uncoupler-inhibitor titration protocols to study mitochondrial physiology in small (1.0-2.5 mg) permeabilized muscle fibres sampled from triceps brachii of healthy horses. Oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity (pmol O(2) • s(-1) • mg(-1) wet weight) with combined Complex...
The Journal of heredityApril 13, 2012
Volume 103, Issue 3 380-390 doi: 10.1093/jhered/ess003
Prystupa JM, Hind P, Cothran EG, Plante Y.A 378-bp section of the mitochondrial displacement loop was used to estimate genetic diversity in the native Canadian equine populations. The inclusion of 10 Mountain and Moorland, 3 Nordic pony breeds, 2 feral populations, and 5 horse breeds were also investigated as they may have influenced the development (or rejuvenation) of the native Canadian populations. A total of 281 samples were sequenced, which produced 75 haplotypes derived from 54 informative sites. On further investigation, 36 of these 75 haplotypes were found to be previously unreported. Overall, total diversity was lowest in th...
Macías-García B, González-Fernández L, Gallardo-Bolaños JM, Peña FJ, Johannisson A, Morrell JM.The aim of this study was to elucidate if SLC after 24 h storage selects the subpopulation of spermatozoa that better withstands osmotic shock. To test this hypothesis, viability, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and superoxide anion (O(2)(·-)) production of uncentrifuged (UC) and single layer centrifugation (SLC) - selected spermatozoa were analyzed following SLC after storage of the semen. An aliquot of the extended ejaculate (100×10(6) spermatozoa/mL) was centrifuged through a single layer of a silane-coated silica based colloid formulation optimized for equine spermatozoa (Androcol...
Álvarez I, Fernández I, Lorenzo L, Payeras L, Cuervo M, Goyache F.Pedigree information and 179 mtDNA sequences from two endangered Spanish horse breeds, the Asturcón pony (143) and the Mallorquí horse (36), were analysed to asses: (i) the pedigree and molecular maternal genetic diversity of the two breeds; (ii) the concordance between the dam lines recorded in the corresponding studbooks and the mtDNA haplotypes identified; and (iii) to assess the losses of maternal genetic variability occurred from the foundation of the studbooks to present. Up to 50 Asturcón and 18 Mallorquí founder dam lines were identified in the studbooks analysed. Up to 315 Asturc...
Lindner A, Dag Erginsoy S, Kissenbeck S, Mosen H, Hetzel U, Drommer W, Chamizo VE, Rivero JL.The effects of three different blood-guided conditioning programmes on ultrastructural and histochemical features of the gluteus medius muscle of 2-year-old sport horses were examined. Six non-trained Haflinger horses performed three consecutive conditioning programmes of varying lactate-guided intensities [velocities eliciting blood lactate concentrations of 1.5 (v1.5 ), 2.5 (v2.5 ) and 4 (v4 ) mm respectively] and durations (25 and 45 min). Each conditioning programme lasted 6 weeks and was followed by a 5-week resting period. Pre-, post- and deconditioning muscle biopsies were analyse...
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...
Kirk ES, Squires EL, Graham JK.Assessing the fertilizing potential of a semen sample is important for effective stallion management and for rapid progress in evaluating new cryopreservation technologies. Unfortunately, sperm motility does not estimate fertility well. These experiments established assays to measure cell viability, acrosomal integrity and mitochondrial function for cryopreserved stallion spermatozoa, using flow cytometry, and determined the variability associated with these assays. Correlations between results for these laboratory assays and stallion fertility were also determined. The inter-assay variability...
Iwańczyk E, Juras R, Cholewiński G, Cothran EG.In this study a wide range of genetic markers (12 microsatellites, 7 blood-group loci, 10 blood-protein loci) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were used to assess genetic diversity in Polish Heavy horses. Three random samples were sequenced for 421 bp of the mitochondrial D-loop region, but no clear phylogenetic patterns were seen in mtDNA variation. Both heterozygosity and diversity levels are fairly high in Polish Heavy horses. In phylogenetic analysis the draught horses form a distinct cluster that pairs with the true pony breeds. Within this 'cold-blooded' group, the Polish Heavy Horse cluste...
Winton CL, McMahon R, Hegarty MJ, McEwan NR, Davies-Morel MCG, Morgan C, Nash DM.The UK and Ireland have many native pony breeds with historical and cultural importance as well as being a source of uncharacterized genetic diversity. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research investigating their genetic diversity and phylogenetic interrelationships. Many studies contain a limited number of pony breeds or small sample sizes for these breeds. This may result in erroneous grouping of pony breeds that otherwise have intricate interrelationships with each other and are not evaluated correctly when placed as a token subset of a larger dataset. This is the first study that...
Zhang B, Huang H, Wang H, Zhang D, Chu H, Ma X, Ge Y, Ente M, Li K.Gasterophilus species are widely distributed around the world. The larvae of these flies parasitize the digestive tract of equids and cause damage, hindering horse breeding and protection of endangered species. However, study of the genetic structure of geographically distinct Gasterophilus populations is lacking. Here, we analyzed the genetic diversity of Gasterophilus pecorum, G. intestinalis, G. nasalis and G. nigricornis from three typical grasslands (meadow, desert and alpine steppes) in China as compared to published sequences from Italy, Poland and China (Daqing and Yili), based on the ...
Ortgies F, Klewitz J, Görgens A, Martinsson G, Sieme H.Reasons for low in vitro fertilisation rates in the horse include the difficulties in inducing capacitation and/or hyperactivation of stallion spermatozoa. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of noncapacitating and capacitating modified Whitten's (MW) and modified Tyrode's medium (MT) and treatment with procaine (5 mmol), pentoxifylline (3.5 mmol) and trolox (120 mmol) on motility (CASA), capacitation, acrosomal status, viability and mitochondrial membrane potential of stallion spermatozoa (n = 4). While there was no influence of MW and MT on sperm motility, a significant increase ...
Draper ACE, Wilson Z, Maile C, Faccenda D, Campanella M, Piercy RJ.A glutamic acid to lysine (E40K) residue substitution in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) is associated with canine degenerative myelopathy: the only naturally occurring large animal model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The E40 residue is highly conserved across mammals, except the horse, which naturally carries the (dog mutant) K40 residue. Here we hypothesized that in vitro expression of mutant dog SOD1 would recapitulate features of human ALS (ie, SOD1 protein aggregation, reduced cell viability, perturbations in mitochondrial morphology and membrane potential, reduced ATP production,...
Hendricks KE, Hansen PJ.Apoptosis is common during spermatogenesis. Here, it was tested whether apoptosis could be induced in sperm after ejaculation. There were several lines of evidence to indicate that sperm are resistant to induction of apoptosis. First, incubation of bull sperm at temperatures characteristic of normothermia (38.5 degrees C) or heat shock (40 and 41 degrees C) for 4h did not increase the proportion of sperm positive for the TUNEL reaction. There was also no reduction in mitochondrial polarity caused by exposure to 40 or 41 degrees C. Incubation at 38.5 degrees C (least-squares mean+/-SEM=4.0+/-1....
Valberg SJ, Carlson GP, Cardinet GH, Birks EK, Jones JH, Chomyn A, DiMauro S.Although exertional myopathies are commonly recognized in horses, specific etiologies have not been identified. This is the first report in the horse of a deficiency of Complex I respiratory chain enzyme associated with profound exercise intolerance. Physical examination, routine blood tests, endoscopy, and ultrasonograms of the heart and iliac arteries were unremarkable. With slow, incremental exercise (speeds 1.5-7 m/s), the Arabian mare showed a marked lactic acidosis, increased mixed venous PVO2, and little change in oxygen consumption. Muscle biopsies contained large accumulations of mito...
Umair M, Claes A, Buijtendorp M, Cuervo-Arango J, Stout TAE, Henning H.Artificial insemination with chilled stallion semen is hampered by a limited period of maximum fertility maintenance (24-48 h). This study used multiparametric flow cytometry to simultaneously measure reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, mitochondrial function or [Ca ] and plasma membrane fluidity in viable, acrosome-intact spermatozoa, with the aim of providing insight into changes in sperm function during storage at 5°C. High proportions of viable and acrosome-intact spermatozoa (71 ± 8%) remained after 96 h of storage demonstrating that the basic integrity of the cells was we...
González-Fernández L, Morrell JM, Peña FJ, Macías-García B.The present study aimed to elucidate the effects that osmotic shock exerts on equine spermatozoa. To achieve this goal, a retrospective study of the cellular volume of 40 equine ejaculates subjected to osmolarities ranging from 75 to 900 mOsm in Biggers-Whitten-Whittingham (BWW) media was performed using a Multisizer3 Coulter Counter®. The 300 mOsm BWW solution was used as control. The sperm volume ranged between 37.93±0.6 (mean±Standard Error of the Mean (SEM)) in 75 mOsm BWW to 21.61±0.27 (mean±SEM) for 900 mOsm BWW. Thus the spermatozoa behaved as linear osmometers when adjusted to the...
Dominguez EM, Moreno-Irusta A, Rodriguez MB, Salamone DF, de Arruda RP, Losinno L, Giojalas LC.The successful use of assisted reproduction techniques (ART) depends in part on the sperm physiological status. Several sperm selection procedures have been applied to improve quality of sperm population when using the ART. There has previously been development of a Sperm Selection Assay (SSA) for humans which is based on the attraction of capacitated sperm by chemotaxis towards progesterone (P), resulting in an enriched sperm population with an optimal physiological status similar to capacitated spermatozoa, with these cells having very little DNA fragmentation and optimal concentrations of r...
Lin X, Zheng HX, Davie A, Zhou S, Wen L, Meng J, Zhang Y, Aladaer Q, Liu B, Liu WJ, Yao XK.Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes the genes for respiratory chain sub-units that determine the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria. The aim of this study was to determine if there were any haplogroups and variants in mtDNA that could be associated with athletic performance of Thoroughbred horses. The whole mitochondrial genomes of 53 maternally unrelated Australian Thoroughbred horses were sequenced and an association study was performed with the competition histories of 1123 horses within their maternal lineages. A horse mtDNA phylogenetic tree was constructed based on a t...
Lewis N, Hinrichs K, Leese HJ, McGregor Argo C, Brison DR, Sturmey RG.The use of in vitro embryo production in the horse is increasing in clinical and research settings; however, protocols are yet to be optimised. Notably, the two most commonly used base media for in vitro maturation (IVM) supply glucose at markedly different concentrations: physiological (5.6 mM, M199) or supraphysiological (17 mM, DMEM/F-12). Exposure to high glucose has detrimental effects on oocytes and early embryos in many mammalian species, but the impact has not yet been examined in the horse. To address this, we compared the energy metabolism of equine COCs matured in M199-based maturat...
Journal of proteomicsJuly 21, 2021
Volume 247 104335 doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2021.104335
Gaitskell-Phillips G, Martín-Cano FE, Ortiz-Rodríguez JM, Silva-Rodríguez A, da Silva-Álvarez E, Rojo-Domínguez P, Tapia JA, Gil MC....Even in stallions with sperm quality within normal reference ranges at ejaculation, subtle differences in sperm quality exist that in many cases lead to reduced time frames for conservation of the ejaculate and/or reduced fertility. The spermatozoon is a cell highly suitable for proteomics studies, and the use of this technique is allowing rapid advances in the understanding of sperm biology. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences among stallions of variable sperm quality (based on motility and sperm velocities), although all horses had sperm characteristics within normal ...
Cassano JM, Marycz K, Horna M, Nogues MP, Morgan JM, Herrmann DB, Galuppo LD, Vapniarsky N.No current treatments available halt osteoarthritis progression in horses or humans. Intra-articular injection of mitochondria is a novel treatment that has the potential to improve cell metabolism and decrease inflammation, but safety of this treatment has yet to be established in the horse. Autologous blood-derived mitochondria isolated using a commercially available kit were injected into the left carpus joint of 3 horses which were monitored for 28 days. Horses received physical examinations, video recorded gait evaluations, joint diameter measurement, synovial fluid collection, and blood ...
Houben R, Leleu C, Fraipont A, Serteyn D, Votion DM.This prospective cohort study evaluated the potential of high-resolution respirometry applied to permeabilized muscle fibers for fitness evaluation in French Standardbred racehorses. Fitness evaluation by means of respirometric parameters did not correlate with racing performance registered over the following racing season. However, altered mitochondrial energy metabolism was associated with higher risk of developing exertional rhabdomyolysis, a common cause of exercise intolerance in racehorses. These data represent a first step towards establishing reference values for muscle OXPHOS capacity...
Santos Alves J, da Silva Anjos M, Silva Bastos M, Sarmento Martins de Oliveira L, Pereira Pinto Oliveira I, Batista Pinto LF....Equid breeds originating from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa are believed to have genetically contributed to the formation of breeds and ecotypes from Brazil. The country has numerous breeds and ecotypes of horses and donkeys but there are no extensive studies on maternal genetic diversity and their origins. This study reports the results of the first genetic analysis of all horse and donkey breeds/ecotypes from Brazil based on sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region (D-loop) whose main objective was to characterize the genetic variation in these animals. These analyses will ...
Macedo S, Bliebernicht M, Carvalheira J, Costa A, Ribeiro F, Rocha A.Glycerol-based extenders are widely utilized for freezing equine semen, but media combining methylformamide may better preserve sperm motility and mitochondrial function. Semen is cryopreserved utilizing either a Styrofoam box filled with liquid nitrogen or an automatic freezer. The objective of this experiment was to compare the post-thaw characteristics of the same ejaculates cryopreserved in a Styrofoam box or in an automatic freezer, utilizing a glycerol-based extender (Gent) and an extender that combines methylformamide and glycerol (BotuCrio ). For that, one ejaculate from 30 stallions c...
Jhamb D, Talluri TR, Sharma S, Juneja R, Nirwan SS, Yadav D, Pargi KK, Tanwar A, Kumar P, Kumar R, Mehta SC, Parashar M, Gaur M.Cryopreservation of stallion semen is often associated with poor post-thaw sperm quality. One of the reason for this diminished quality is osmotic stress that spermatozoa experiences during freezing and thawing process. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cryoprotective effect of trehalose on stallion sperm quality and field fertility rates subjected to cooling and freeze-thawing process. Semen samples were collected from six Marwari breed stallions, divided into three different treatments in a final concentration of 150 × 106 sperm/mL by using Lactose based extender containing...
Nogueira BG, Pereira RR, Bitencourt JL, Milan B, Reis WVA, Junior MV, Acácio BR, Sampaio BFB, I L Souza M.The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the effect of the addition of different concentrations of the antioxidants Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and melatonin to equine semen freezing diluent, alone or in combination, during the cryopreservation process. Twenty ejaculates (n = 5 stallions) were divided in groups: Control (C, without the addition of antioxidants), melatonin 0.75 mM (MEL1), melatonin 1.5 mM (MEL2), CoQ10 40 μg/mL (Q1), CoQ10 200 μg/mL (Q2), and CoQ10 40 μg/mL+ 0.75 mM melatonin (Q1 +MEL1). Q1 and Q2 groups demonstrated intact plasma membrane and high mitochondrial me...
Adalbert R, Cahalan S, Hopkins EL, Almuhanna A, Loreto A, Pór E, Körmöczy L, Perkins J, Coleman MP, Piercy RJ.Neurological disorders are prevalent in horses, but their study is challenging due to anatomic constraints and the large body size; very few host-specific in vitro models have been established to study these types of diseases, particularly from adult donor tissue. Here we report the generation of primary neuronal dorsal root ganglia (DRG) cultures from adult horses: the mixed, dissociated cultures, containing neurons and glial cells, remained viable for at least 90 days. Similar to DRG neurons in vivo, cultured neurons varied in size, and they developed long neurites. The mitochondrial movem...
