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.
Harrison SP, Turrion-Gomez JL.The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecule, carrying genes encoding for respiratory chain enzymes, is a primary candidate for demonstrating associations between genotype and athletic performance in mammalian species. In humans, variation at seven protein encoding mitochondrial loci has been implicated in influencing fitness and performance characteristics. Although thoroughbred horses are selected for racing ability, there have not been any previous reported associations between genotypes and racecourse performance. The multi-factorial nature of the inheritance of racing ability is an obvious comp...
The Journal of heredityFebruary 17, 2006
Volume 97, Issue 2 107-113 doi: 10.1093/jhered/esj020
Luís C, Bastos-Silveira C, Cothran EG, Oom Mdo M.Fossil records, archaeological proofs, and historical documents report that horses persisted continuously in the Iberian Peninsula since the Pleistocene and were taken to the American continent (New World) in the 15th century. To investigate the variation within the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of Iberian and New World horse breeds, to analyze their relationships, and to test the historical origin of New World horses, a total of 153 samples, representing 30 Iberian and New World breeds, were analyzed by sequencing mtDNA control region fragments. Fifty-four haplotypes were found and...
The Journal of heredityOctober 26, 2005
Volume 96, Issue 6 663-669 doi: 10.1093/jhered/esi116
Royo LJ, Alvarez I, Beja-Pereira A, Molina A, Fernández I, Jordana J, Gómez E, Gutiérrez JP, Goyache F.Despite a number of recent studies that have focused on the origin of domestic horses, genetic relationships between major geographical clusters still remain poorly understood. In this study we analyzed a 296 bp mtDNA fragment from the HVI region of 171 horses representing 11 native Iberian, Barb, and Exmoor breeds to assess the maternal phylogeography of Iberian horses. The mtDNA haplogroup with a CCG motif (nucleotide position 15,494 to 15,496) was the most frequent in Iberian and Barb breeds (0.42 and 0.57, respectively), regardless of geographic location or group of breeds. This finding su...
Baumber J, Ball BA, Linfor JJ.To evaluate the effect of the addition of enzyme scavengers and antioxidants to the cryopreservation extender on characteristics of equine spermatozoa after freezing and thawing. Methods: 2 ejaculates collected from each of 5 stallions. Methods: Equine spermatozoa were cryopreserved in freezing extender alone (control samples) or with the addition of catalase (200 U/mL), superoxide dismutase (200 U/mL), reduced glutathione (10 mM), ascorbic acid (10 mM), alpha-tocopherol (25, 50, 100, or 500 microM or 1 mM), or the vehicle for alpha-tocopherol (0.5% ethanol). After thawing, spermatozoal motili...
Lopes MS, Mendonça D, Cymbron T, Valera M, da Costa-Ferreira J, Machado Ada C.The analysis of mitochondrial D-loop sequences (408 bp) from 145 Lusitano founder mares yielded a total of 27 different haplotypes. The distribution of these mtDNA sequences was quite unequal, with the three most frequent ones representing 56.5% of all the Lusitano founder mares and 14 haplotypes (51.9%) being rare variants found only once in the sampling. Four main haplotype clusters were present in the Lusitano breed. The comparison of these sequences with other equine haplotypes shows that they fall in groups shared with other horse breeds. These data support the hypothesis of multiple dome...
Keyser-Tracqui C, Blandin-Frappin P, Francfort HP, Ricaut FX, Lepetz S, Crubézy E, Samashev Z, Ludes B.Sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop was used to determine the genetic diversity of horses recovered from a Scythian princely tomb dating from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Eight haplotypes were found among the 13 ancient horse samples tested. Phylogenetical analysis showed that these ancient horse's sequences, along with two Yakut ones, were distributed throughout the tree defined by modern horses' sequences and are closely related to them. No clear geographical affiliation of the specimens studied was thus determined. Our work, among others, supports the very ancient ...
Kumar P, Timoney JF.The tubal tonsil of the horse surrounds the pharyngeal opening of the eustachian tube and is lined by pseudostratified columnar ciliated epithelium interspersed with areas of follicle-associated epithelium (FAE) heavily infiltrated by lymphocytes but devoid of goblet and ciliated cells. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy revealed microvillous cells and cells with features characteristic of M cells such as reduced microvilli or depressed bare surface, more numerous mitochondria, small vesicles and lysosomes, as well as vimentin filaments and epitopes specific for GS 1-B4 as previousl...
Riggenbach Ch, Stranzinger G, Poncet PA, Glowatzki ML, Muntwyler J, Gaillard C, Rieder S.In this study it was investigated whether the "Einsiedler" warmblood horse, a historically old horse population from central Switzerland (Abbey of Einsiedeln), is distinguishable from micellaneous horse breeds, using molecular genetic techniques. The breeding history of Einsiedler horses is characterised by systematic line breeding through the dams. Therefore, two Einsiedler dam lines (N = 28), going back to the middle of the 19th century according to pedigree entries, were the focus of the survey. Random samples of diverse warmblood horse populations, but also samples from more distinct types...
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...
Aziz DM, Ahlswede L, Enbergs H.The assay of MTT reduction depends on the ability of metabolically active cells to reduce the tetrazolium salt (3[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-y1]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) to formazan. This study was conducted to examine and validate of a simple and less costly MTT test in determining equine sperm viability and compare the efficiency of this test with a flow cytometer. Fresh ejaculates from 11 stallions (warm blood) were included in this study. Semen was diluted to 100 million cells/ml in a Hepes 0.1% BSA. The rates of MTT reduction were measured in microtiter plates after incubation for 1 an...
Mang L, Li JL, Shi YF.Mitochondrial DNA D-Loop varied region 400 bp sequence variations in 4 Chinese Mongolian horses and 4 External Thoroughbred horses were analyzed in this experiment. The results showed that the average nucleotide mutational rate of mtDNA D-Loop varied region in 4 Chinese Mongolian horses was 3.69%, while External Thoroughbred horses were 4.00%. Three types of mutations including transition, transversion and deletion were all found in the investigated mtDNA D-Loop regions, of which transition was the most frequent. Nucleotide mutational loci were abundant, length mutations were found and great d...
Cozzi MC, Strillacci MG, Valiati P, Bighignoli B, Cancedda M, Zanotti M.The genetic variability of the mitochondrial D-loop DNA sequence in seven horse breeds bred in Italy (Giara, Haflinger, Italian trotter, Lipizzan, Maremmano, Thoroughbred and Sarcidano) was analysed. Five unrelated horses were chosen in each breed and twenty-two haplotypes were identified. The sequences obtained were aligned and compared with a reference sequence and with 27 mtDNA D-loop sequences selected in the GenBank database, representing Spanish, Portuguese, North African, wild horses and an Equus asinus sequence as the outgroup. Kimura two-parameter distances were calculated and a clust...
Tukov FF, Rimoldi JM, Matthews JC.Repin, a major constituent in extracts of the plant Centaurea repens is thought to be the active principal responsible for the development of equine nigropallidal encephalomalacia (ENE), a fatal Parkinson-like neurodegenerative disorder in horses. Although the exact mechanism by which ingestion of this weed causes ENE is uncertain, a limited body of experimental evidence suggests a critical role for the glutathione redox system. In the present study, the mechanism of repin neurotoxicity was examined in PC12 cells with a focus on determining the role of glutathione (GSH) in repin-induced mitoch...
Di Bernardo G, Del Gaudio S, Galderisi U, Cipollaro M.Ancient DNA extracted from 2000 year-old equine bones was examined in order to amplify mitochondrial and nuclear DNA fragments. A specific equine satellite-type sequence representing 3.7%-11% of the entire equine genome, proved to be a suitable target to address the question of the presence of aDNA in ancient bones. The PCR strategy designed to investigate this specific target also allowed us to calculate the molecular weight of amplifiable DNA fragments. Sequencing of a 370 bp DNA fragment of mitochondrial control region allowed the comparison of ancient DNA sequences with those of modern hor...
Hirst SJ, Martin JG, Bonacci JV, Chan V, Fixman ED, Hamid QA, Herszberg B, Lavoie JP, McVicker CG, Moir LM, Nguyen TT, Peng Q, Ramos-Barbón D....Increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass is perhaps the most important component of the airway wall remodeling process in asthma. Known mediators of ASM proliferation in cell culture models fall into 2 categories: those that activate receptors with intrinsic receptor tyrosine kinase activity and those that have their effects through receptors linked to heterotrimeric guanosine triphosphate-binding proteins. The major candidate signaling pathways activated by ASM mitogens are those dependent on extracellular signal-regulated kinase and phosphoinositide 3'-kinase. Increases in ASM mass may also...
Belousova IP, Orlov VN, Kudriavtsev IV.The current condition of the megapopulation of the Przhevalsky horse was assessed using genetic indices of biological diversity of species and genealogical analysis and taking into account both nuclear and non-nuclear (mitochondrial), maternally inherited components of hereditary information.
Di Bernardo G, Galderisi U, Del Gaudio S, D'Aniello A, Lanave C, De Robertis MT, Cascino A, Cipollaro M.DNA extracted from the skeletons of five equids discovered in a Pompeii stable and of a horse found in Herculaneum was investigated. Amino acid racemization level was consistent with the presence of DNA. Post-mortem base modifications were excluded by sequencing a 146 bp fragment of the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene. Sequencing of a 370 bp fragment of mitochondrial (mt)DNA control region allowed the construction of a phylogenetic tree that, along with sequencing of nuclear genes (epsilon globin, gamma interferon, and p53) fragments, gave us the possibility to address some questions puzzling arch...
Love CC, Thompson JA, Brinsko SP, Rigby SL, Blanchard TL, Lowry VK, Varner DD.Relationships between sperm motility parameters and viability were evaluated using two fluorescent staining techniques in fresh extended semen (fresh and after 24 h storage at 5 degrees C) that had various concentrations of dead sperm added to simulate different levels of viable and nonviable sperm. Both protocols incorporated SYBR-14 and propidium iodide (PI) while the second protocol added the mitochondrial probe JC-1. The relationship between total sperm motility and percent viable sperm was high between staining protocols (r = 0.98). Time (0 h versus 24 h, P<0.0001) and treatment (0, 10, 2...
Grulke S, Deby-Dupont G, Cassart D, Gangl M, Caudron I, Lamy M, Serteyn D.In cases of equine acute abdominal disease, where pancreatic damage is suspected, pancreatic damage can be assessed by measuring increased trypsin activity in the plasma of horses suffering intestinal obstruction and severe shock. The pancreas is particularly vulnerable to splanchnic hypoperfusion because it is a highly active tissue. In this study, 10 horses undergoing abdominal surgery for intestinal obstruction were assayed for trypsin activity on admission and, because of extensive intestinal lesions that were not amenable to surgery, euthanasia was selected; the pancreas was removed befor...
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...
Kavar T, Brem G, Habe F, Sölkner J, Dovc P.Sequencing of the mtDNA control region (385 or 695 bp) of 212 Lipizzans from eight studs revealed 37 haplotypes. Distribution of haplotypes among studs was biased, including many private haplotypes but only one haplotype was present in all the studs. According to historical data, numerous Lipizzan maternal lines originating from founder mares of different breeds have been established during the breed's history, so the broad genetic base of the Lipizzan maternal lines was expected. A comparison of Lipizzan sequences with 136 sequences of domestic- and wild-horses from GenBank showed a clusterin...
Pommer AC, Rutllant J, Meyers SA.Cryopreservation requires exposure of sperm to extreme variations in temperature and osmolality. The goal of this experiment was to determine the osmotic tolerance levels of equine sperm by analyzing motility, viability, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and mean cell volume (MCV). Spermatozoa were incubated at 22 degrees C for 10 min in isosmolal TALP (300 mOsm/kg), or a range of anisosmolal TALP solutions (75-900 mOsm/kg), for initial analysis, and then returned to isosmolal conditions for 10 min for further analysis. Total sperm motility was lower (P < 0.05) in anisosmolal conditio...
Mirol PM, Peral García P, Vega-Pla JL, Dulout FN.South American horses constitute a direct remnant of the Iberian horses brought to the New World by the Spanish conquerors. The source of the original horses was Spain, and it is generally assumed that the animals belonged to the Andalusian, Spanish Celtic, Barb or Arabian breeds. In order to establish the relationship between Argentinean and Spanish horses, a portion of the mitochondrial D-loop of 104 animals belonging to nine South American and Spanish breeds was analysed using SSCP and DNA sequencing. The variability found both within and between breeds was very high. There were 61 polymorp...
Hill EW, Bradley DG, Al-Barody M, Ertugrul O, Splan RK, Zakharov I, Cunningham EP.Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop sequences (381 bp) from 100 thoroughbreds in 19 of the most common matrilineal female families were used to reconstruct a founder female population for the thoroughbred ( approximately 1650-1750 AD). Seventeen haplotypes were found to have contributed to the 19 female lineages. In order to place the reconstructed founder population in wider historical context, we examined, using both single strand conformation polymorphism and direct sequence analysis, variation in a 343 bp mtDNA fragment in that population and 13 other horse populations of disparate provenance...
Yang YH, Kim KI, Cothran EG, Flannery AR.We used sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop (968 bp excluding the tandem repeat region) to determine genetic diversity of horses inhabiting Cheju (a southern island of Korea). Seventeen haplotypes with frequencies from 1.5 to 21.5% were found among 65 Cheju horse samples. Genetic diversity (h) of the 17 haplotypes was calculated to be 0.91, indicating that the extant Cheju horse population consists of diverse genetic groups in their maternal lineage. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 17 types of Cheju (D-loop sequences determined), 5 Mongolian, 6 Arabian, 3 Belgian, 2 Tsushim...
Jansen T, Forster P, Levine MA, Oelke H, Hurles M, Renfrew C, Weber J, Olek K.The place and date of the domestication of the horse has long been a matter for debate among archaeologists. To determine whether horses were domesticated from one or several ancestral horse populations, we sequenced the mitochondrial D-loop for 318 horses from 25 oriental and European breeds, including American mustangs. Adding these sequences to previously published data, the total comes to 652, the largest currently available database. From these sequences, a phylogenetic network was constructed that showed that most of the 93 different mitochondrial (mt)DNA types grouped into 17 distinct p...
Abdullaev ZKh, Bodrova ME, Chernyak BV, Dolgikh DA, Kluck RM, Pereverzev MO, Arseniev AS, Efremov RG, Kirpichnikov MP, Mokhova EN, Newmeyer DD....A cytochrome c mutant lacking apoptogenic function but competent in electron transfer and antioxidant activities has been constructed. To this end, mutant species of horse and yeast cytochromes c with substitutions in the N-terminal alpha-helix or position 72 were obtained. It was found that yeast cytochrome c was much less effective than the horse protein in activating respiration of rat liver mitoplasts deficient in endogenous cytochrome c as well as in inhibition of H(2)O(2) production by the initial segment of the respiratory chain of intact rat heart mitochondria. The major role in the di...
Al-Zi'abi MO, Fraser HM, Watson ED.In mares, little information is available on the type of cell death that occurs during natural and induced luteal regression. Corpora lutea were collected from mares in the early luteal phase, days 3-4 (n = 4); mid-luteal phase, day 10 (n = 5); early regression, day 14 (n = 4); late regression, day 17 (n = 4); and 12 and 36 h (n = 3 per group) after PGF2alpha administration on day 10. Histological and ultrastructural sections were examined and TUNEL was used to detect DNA fragmentation. In early luteal regression, there were more pyknotic luteal cells and extracellular round dense bodies compa...
Graham JK.For many years, scientists have sought to develop laboratory assays that accurately predict the fertilizing capacity of a semen sample. This goal, however, has proven elusive and will most likely be very difficult to achieve, due to the complex nature of the problem. Part of the problem results from the many attributes that a spermatozoon must possess to fertilize an egg, and how laboratory assays can evaluate all of these attributes simultaneously. The percentage of motile sperm in a sample is most commonly used to evaluate semen quality. This assay, however, is not highly correlated with the...
Ball BA, Vo A.Osmotic stress attributed to differences in the relative permeability of cryoprotectants, such as glycerol and water, appears to be an important factor in cryodamage. The objective of this study was to characterize the osmotic tolerance of equine spermatozoa, and to evaluate the effects of addition and removal of cryoprotectants from equine spermatozoa on their motility, and membrane and acrosomal integrity, as well as their mitochondrial membrane potential. Equine spermatozoa had a limited osmotic tolerance to anisosmotic conditions. Although the addition of increasing concentrations of glyce...
Marshall DE, Dumasia MC, Wooding P, Gower DB, Houghton E.Maternal endometrial and fetal allantochorionic tissues were separated manually from the placentae of seven healthy thoroughbred and three pony mares, ranging in gestational age from 100 to 318 days. The homogeneity of subcellular fractions prepared from these tissues was assessed initially using the marker enzymes, succinate dehydrogenase, NADPH cytochrome C reductase and lactate dehydrogenase for the mitochondrial, microsomal and cytosolic fractions, respectively. Light microscopy and histochemical analysis demonstrated that the separated fetal allantochorionic membrane, which is made up of ...
Kusliy MA, Druzhkova AS, Popova KO, Vorobieva NV, Makunin AI, Yurlova AA, Tishkin AA, Minyaev SS, Trifonov , Graphodatsky AS, Dymova MA, Filipenko ML.From genetic point of view, differences between ancient and modern horses can be reconstructed by using the phylogeographic analysis of mitochondrial genomes and by studying phenotypically important nuclear loci. The variety of modern horse coat colors resulted from artificial selection indicates a high degree of domestication. We have conducted the phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from bone samples of six ancient horses from Tsaramburial in the Republic of Buryatia, and established that they belong to a haplogroup E by Achilli’s classification. This haplogroup is found a...
Oliveira Spila D, Maranhão RPA, Ocarino NM, de Lima JTB, Melo FG, Boeloni JN, Serakides R.The effects of two concentrations of triiodothyronine (T3; 0.01 and 1,000 nM) on the osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation abilities of equine adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) were evaluated. The osteogenic study evaluated the effect of T3 using alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) assay; cell viability and density; and formation of mineralized nodules at Days 7, 14, and 21 in culture. The chondrogenic study tested the effect of T3 through ALP assay, mitochondrial metabolism, cell density, and periodic acid-Schiff-positive (PAS+) matrix percentage at Days 7 and 14. In bot...
Kawai M, Kuwano A, Hiraga A, Miyata H.The myonuclear domain (MND) is the region of cytoplasm governed by a single myonucleus. Myonuclear domain size is an important factor for muscle fibre plasticity because each myonucleus has limitations in the capacity of protein synthesis. Previous studies have demonstrated that differences in MND size exist in different fibre types in several species, including horses. Objective: To understand the basic mechanism of muscle plasticity, the relationships between MND size, muscle fibre type population and metabolic properties of skeletal muscles throughout the whole body in Thoroughbred horses w...
Franck T, Votion DM, Ceusters J, De La Rebière de Pouyade G, Mouithys-Mickalad A, Niesten A, Fraipont A, VAN Erck E, Goachet AG, Robert C, Serteyn D.Intense exercise in horses induces an increase of creatine kinase (CK) and stimulation of neutrophils which release the strong oxidant enzyme, myeloperoxidase (MPO) into the blood. It is not known whether active MPO is found in equine muscles and whether oxidant activity of neutrophils could affect muscular tissues and mitochondrial activity. Objective: Specific immuno-extraction followed by enzymatic detection (SIEFED) methods will be employed for the first time to assess both the normal range of MPO and mitochondrial complex I (MCI) activities in equine muscular microbiopsies and to study th...
Dzięgielewska A, Dunislawska A.Mitochondria are an essential part of most eukaryotic cells. The crucial role of these organelles is the production of metabolic energy, which is converted into ATP in oxidative phosphorylation. They are also involved in and constitute apoptosis, the site of many metabolic processes. Some of the factors that negatively affect mitochondria are stress, excessive exercise, disease, and the aging process. Exercise can cause the release of large amounts of free radicals, inflammation, injury, and stress. All of these factors can contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction, which can consistently lead t...
Novello G, Segabinazzi LGTM, Lisboa FP, Canuto LE, Freitas-Dell'Aqua CP, Dell'Aqua JA, Canisso IF.This study compared the postthaw semen parameters of stallions with high and low body condition score (BCS) and evaluated associations between body morphometric parameters and postthaw semen parameters. Twenty stallions were split into Low BCS (BCS<7, n = 11) and High BCS (BCS ≥7, n = 9) groups, and underwent a complete morphometric analysis (e.g., neck scores and circumference, crest neck height, body weight, and height), and subcutaneous body fat thickness (SFT) at the tail head, withers, shoulders, and retroperitoneal space. A fasted oral sugar test (OST) was conducted on all stallio...
Watson ED, Thomson SR, Howie AF.A steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein has been identified in several species as a probable important rate-limiting step in steroidogenesis. This protein is believed to be responsible for transporting cholesterol from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane. It is known that equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) stimulates steroidogenesis in the corpora lutea of early pregnant mares and that eCG also upregulates StAR mRNA in bovine ovaries. In the present study, ovarian tissue from cyclic and early pregnant mares was immunostained to detect the distribution of the StAR protein. W...
Hall JA, Hoyt D, Zuver C, Skinner MM, Schlipf JW.The criteria used to diagnose recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) in affected horses include demonstration of reversible lower airway obstruction and greater than 25% neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Additional objective laboratory tests are needed to improve diagnostic accuracy and to monitor response to treatment. The goal of this study was to determine if neutrophil chemoattractant activity of BALF could be measured by using a previously described, rapid, multiwell colorimetric assay for chemotaxis. In this assay, neutrophils that have migrated through a membrane filter ar...
John HA, Laffling AJ, Marrs J, Baird A, Jat PS, Holdstock NB, Rossdale PD.To enable direct testing of a range of potential toxins or pathogens that might be involved in grass sickness, equine thoracic sympathetic chain ganglion cell lines were established from primary cell cultures by retroviral-mediated transduction of the temperature-sensitive mutant of the establishment oncogene encoding SV40 large T antigen. Morphological and behavioral features, temperature dependence, and immunocytochemical characteristics of the cell lines were investigated. The majority of cells were noradrenergic neurons in which dopamine-beta-hydroxylase, the enzyme that catalyzes norepine...
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....
Bucci D, Giaretta E, Merlo B, Iacono E, Spinaci M, Gadani B, Mari G, Tamanini C, Galeati G.Alkaline phosphatase (AP) is present in equine seminal plasma and spermatozoa, but its functional role is not fully understood yet. Being that, sperm-oocyte interaction in equine species has been reported to be enhanced at a slightly basic pH, this work aimed at verifying whether exogenous alkaline phosphatase exerts any role on stallion spermatozoa and sperm-oocyte interaction at different pHs (7.4; 8.0; 9.0). Stallion spermatozoa were capacitated in Tyrode's medium at pH 7.4, 8.0, and 9.0 for 4 hours at 38 °C, 5% CO with 2.5-IU AP (AP group) or without AP (capacitated spermatozoa group); ...
Wang W, Liu AH, Lin SY, Lan H, Su B, Xie DW, Shi LM.mtDNA genotypes of six domestic horses (three adult short horses whose heights are under 1 m and three common domestic horses) from a small region of 15 km2 in Malipo county of Yunnan province of China were investigated by the technique of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) with 16 restriction endonucleases which recognize 6-bp sequences. An average of 56 fragments for an individual was obtained. Unlike other domestic animals, this population of horses exhibits high mtDNA genetic diversity. Each of the six horses has a specific mtDNA genotype showing a pattern of multiple maternal...
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...
Rejman EE, Kehoe R, Barta JR.The complete mitochondrial genome of (Eimeriidae, Coccidia, Apicomplexa) was obtained. This morphologically distinctive coccidium is considered to be the only valid species of equids and it infects a range of both domestic and wild horses and their relatives. Despite the distinctive appearance of the oocysts of , the mitochondrial genome organization and gene contents were comparable to other spp. and related eimeriid coccidia infecting a range of mammals and birds. The greatly reduced 6242 bp genome is circular-mapping and contains three protein-coding genes (COI, COIII, CytB), 18 fragme...
Ning T, Ling Y, Hu S, Ardalan A, Li J, Mitra B, Chaudhuri TK, Guan W, Zhao Q, Ma Y, Savolainen P, Zhang Y.Despite decades of research, the horse domestication scenario in East Asia remains poorly understood. The study identified 16 haplogroups with fine-scale phylogenetic resolution using mitochondrial genomes of 317 horse samples. The time to the most recent common ancestor of the 16 haplogroups ranges from [0.8-3.1] thousand years ago (KYA) to [7.9-27.1] KYA. With combined analyses of the mitochondrial control region for 35 extant Przewalski's horses, 3544 modern and 203 ancient horses across the world, researchers provide evidence for that East Asian prevalent haplogroups Q and R were indigenou...
Papaioannou KZ, Murphy RP, Monks RS, Hynes N, Ryan MP, Boland MP, Roche JF.An objective double-staining method was developed to evaluate viability and mitochondrial function of stallion spermatozoa using flow cytometry. Sperm viability was assessed by propidium iodide (PI) exclusion, and mitochondrial function was measured by the intensity of rhodamine 123 (R123) fluorescence. Flow cytometry estimates of sperm viability measured by PI were equivalent (P > 0.05) to estimates made using Hoechst 33258 stain and fluorescent microscopy (% dead: 25 +/- 2.4 vs 21.5 +/- 3.5). The use of both PI and R123 was validated by addition of various proportions of freeze-shocked (m...
Contreras MJ, Arias ME, Silva M, Cabrera P, Felmer R.Cryopreservation of stallion semen is less efficient than other species such as bovine. This is mainly because of the greater susceptibility of stallion sperm to the freezing damage that generates oxidative stress and plasma membrane injury, resulting in DNA fragmentation and cell death. These data suggest the need to develop new strategies of sperm cryopreservation that can improve the efficiency of this technique in stallions by reducing or preventing membrane damage and cell death. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of adding membrane stabilizers to the freezing medium and asses...
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...
Puglisi R, Bornaghi V, Severgnini A, Vanni R, Balduzzi D, Galli A.Fresh 36 ejaculates of 13 stallions were split into two volumes, centrifuged with and without cushion and frozen with Conventional and two prototype, Drum and Directional, methods using 0.5 ml straws for the Conventional and Drum, and 2 ml flat straws for both the Drum and Directional. Cushioned centrifugation increased total motility (61.2 ± 18.6% vs. 57.5 ± 18.6%; P < 0.001) and mean velocity (84.3 ± 15.6% vs. 83.2 ± 13.8%; P < 0.05) when compared to not cushioned centrifugation, estimated after cooling the sperm at 4⁰C for 90 min before freezing. Cushioned centrifugation also in...
Hong JH, Oh CS, Kim S, Kang IU, Shin DH.To understand the domestication and spread of horses in history, genetic information is essential. However, mitogenetic traits of ancient or medieval horses have yet to be comprehensively revealed, especially for East Asia. This study thus set out to reveal the maternal lineage of skeletal horse remains retrieved from a 15th century archaeological site (Gongpyeongdong) at Old Seoul City in South Korea. Methods: We extracted DNA from the femur of Equus caballus (SNU-A001) from Joseon period Gongpyeongdong site. Mitochondrial (mt) DNA (HRS 15128-16116) of E. caballus was amplified by polymerase ...
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 ...
Pielok A, Kępska M, Steczkiewicz Z, Grobosz S, Bourebaba L, Marycz K.Medicinal signaling cells (MSC) exhibit distinct molecular signatures and biological abilities, depending on the type of tissue they originate from. Recently, we isolated and described a new population of stem cells residing in the coronary corium, equine hoof progenitor cells (HPCs), which could be a new promising cell pool for the treatment of laminitis. Therefore, this study aimed to compare native populations of HPCs to well-established adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) in standard culture conditions and in a pro-inflammatory milieu to mimic a laminitis condition. ASCs and HPCs were either...
Belousova IP, Orlov VN, Kudriavtsev IV.The current condition of the megapopulation of the Przhevalsky horse was assessed using genetic indices of biological diversity of species and genealogical analysis and taking into account both nuclear and non-nuclear (mitochondrial), maternally inherited components of hereditary information.
Guo X, Pei J, Chu M, Wu X, Bao P, Ding X, Liang C, Yan P.The complete mitochondrial genome of Hequ horse was determined in this study. The mitogenome is 16 656 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and a D-loop region. The overall base composition of the H-strand is 32.20% for A, 28.55% for C, 13.38% for G and 25.86% for T. Tree constructed using MEGA 6 with Maximum-likelihood (ML) methods demonstrated that Hequ horse was clustered in subfamily Equidae.
Gray J, Masters N, Wiegand A, Katouli M.We investigated the specificity and sensitivity of two horse-associated markers, HoF597 and Horse mtCytb, and 12 mitochondrial and bacterial markers of six animal species (human, cow, pig, bird, dog, chicken) in the faecal samples of 50 individual horses. Both horse markers were detected in 48 (96%) faecal samples. Cross-reactivity with dog (BacCan545) and pig (P23-2) occurred in 88% and 72% of horse faecal samples, respectively. Several other bacterial and mitochondrial markers of non-target hosts were also detected; however, their specificities were >80%. Analyses of samples from surface wat...
