Molecular biology in horses involves the study of molecular processes and genetic mechanisms that underpin equine physiology and health. This field encompasses the analysis of DNA, RNA, proteins, and other biomolecules to understand gene expression, genetic variation, and cellular functions in horses. Techniques such as genomic sequencing, gene expression profiling, and molecular diagnostics are employed to explore topics like hereditary diseases, performance traits, and immune responses in equines. This page assembles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that investigate the molecular biology of horses, focusing on genetic research, molecular techniques, and their applications in equine science.
Løowenstein H, Markussen B, Weeke B.Three major allergens of horse hair and dandruff have been isolated. The fractionation procedures involved various combinations, described in detail, of ethanol precipitation below --5degreesC, cation- and anion-exchange chromatography, and gel filtration. UV absorption, quantitative immunoelectrophoresis and RAST inhibition were used to monitor the separations. Protein impurities constituted less than 5% in all cases. The molecular weights of the isolated proteins were 1.9 X 10(4), 5.1 X 10(4) and 3.1 X 10(4) daltons, respectively. The pIs were determined as 4.1, 3.8 and 3.9, respectively. Th...
Heyneman RA, Bruyninckx WJ, Vercauteren RE.Two distinct groups of acid phosphatase containing granules were characterized in neutrophils, each group displaying different multiple forms of the enzyme. The heavy granule acid phosphatase showed a lysosomal location. A second lighter group of particles contained a thermolabile, thiol-dependent acid p-nitrophenyl and alpha-naphtylphosphatase, an enzyme clearly different from lysosomal acid phosphatase. Acid phosphatase activity from eosinophil leukocytes appeared to be totally associated with the typical eosinophil granules. On mechanical disruption of these particles, an acid phosphatase w...
Stewart M.The structure of vertebrate skeletal muscle is reviewed. The mechanism of muscular contraction and its control is then discussed from the point of view of molecular structure. Contraction takes place by a sliding filament mechanism produced by cross-bridges which form between thick and thin filaments. Control is exercised by tropomyosin and troponin. When the calcium concentration is low, these proteins interfere with the formation of cross-bridges and prevent contraction, but when the calcium concentration is increased, they no longer interfere and contraction proceeds.
Cappugi G, Chellini PC, Nassi P, Ramponi G.A ninhydrin-negative peptide fraction obtained from tryptic digest of carboxymethyl acylphosphatase was isolated by chromatography on a column of PA 28 Beckman resin and analysed for the amino acid composition. Degradation with carboxypeptidase B and A indicated that the sequence of this peptide was: X-Thr-Ala-Arg. The amino-terminal residue was identified as N-acetylserine by high voltage electrophoresis. It is therefore suggested that the sequence of the NH2-terminal portion of CM-acylphosphatase is N-acetyl-Ser-Thr-Ala-Arg. Digestion with carboxypeptidase A and B indicated also that the COO...
Shinjyo S, Abe H, Masuda M.The carbohydrate composition of horse spleen ferritin was studied. 1 mol of the apoferritin, the protein moiety of ferritin, contains 25 mol of hexose, 3 mol of hexosamine and 10 mol of fucose. Same carbohydrate composition was detected in the apoferritin from iron rich ferritins. These results indicate that horse spleen ferritin is composed of non-identical subunits as regards its carbohydrate composition.
McLean JG, Lewis IM.The oxygen affinities of horse and human haemoglobins were compared in the absence and presence of the allosteric effector 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG). Horse haemoglobin solutions showed significantly smaller responses to the presence of 2,3-DPG, and this difference may be due to different amino acid substitutions at position NA2(2)beta. Horse haemoglobin solutions from erythrocytes containing different ratios of the two different haemoglobin types showed similar oxygen affinities in the absence and presence of 2,3-DPG. Horse haemoglobins in solution were found to autoxidise to methaemogl...
Fujita S, Cleve H.The major glycoproteins of horse and swine erythrocyte membranes were isolated and examined chemically and immunologically. The major glycoprotein of horse erythrocyte membranes had a molecular weight of 33 000 and consisted of 46.2% protein and 53.8% carbohydrate, of which 9.4% was hexose, 10.1% hexosamine and 33.7% sialic acid. This glycoprotein was associated with activity for the infectious mononucleosis heterophile antigen. There were two different major glycoproteins in swine erythrocyte membranes. One major glycoprotein had a molecular weight of 46 200 and consisted of 34.2% protein and...
Hara A, Taketomi T.Equine renal glycopshingolipids were composed of galactocerebroside, glucocerbroside, ceramide dihexoside, ceramide trihexoside, sulfatide, globoside I, Forssman globoside, and hematoside. Free ceramide and sphingomyelin were also found in equine kidney. Their long chain bases consisted of sphingosine, dihydrosphingosine, C18-phytosphingosine, and C20-phytosphingosine, whereas the fatty acids were separated into two groups: nonhydroxy and hydroxy fatty acids. Ceramide monohexoside was separated into five spots by TLC on borax-impregnated plates. The major component of ceramide monohexoside was...
Schmoldt A, Benthe HF, Haberland G, Sinelnikova EM, Dvoretskova TV, Kagan ZS, Marshall WL, Stoian M, Andrews WR.It has been shown that for the reaction catalyzed by "biodegradative" L-threonine dehydratase from E. coli strains K-12 and 980 in 0.5 M phosphate-carbonate buffer, pH 8.4 and pH 9.5, the plots of initial reaction rate (v) versus the initial substrate concentration ([S]0 are characterized by several inflection points, i. e. an intermediate plateau. The plot of v versus the allosteric activator (AMP) concentration have very complicated shapes: there are several inflection points, and also the maximum at L-threonine concentration equal to 3-10(2) and 5-10(-2) M. High AMP concentrations inhibit t...
Schmoldt A, Benthe HF, Haberland G, Jallon JM, Risler Y, Iwatsubo M, Karuzina II, Bachmanova GI, Kuznetsova GP, Izotov MV, Archakov AI, Kröger H....It has been found that NADPH-dependent hydroxylation of dimethylaniline, aniline, p- and o-nitroanisol and lipid peroxidation is inhibited by the tyrosine-copper (II) complex (low molecular weight analog of superoxide dismutase), which is indicative of a possibility of superoxide radicals formation in these reactions. The inhibition of the above-mentioned reactions with Tyr2-Cu2+ is less pronounced or absent, if cumole hydroperoxide is used as cosubstrate instead of NADPH. Differences in the Tyr2-Cu2+ complex effects on the cumule hydroperoxide-dependent xenobiotics hydroxylation and lipid per...
Nishi S, Watabe H, Hirai H.Alpha-Fetoproteins of several animals were purified and their molecular weights, amino acid compositions and peptide maps were compared, demonstrating the close similarities. These data indicated that the alpha-fetoproteins of mammalian species have closely related antigenical and chemical structures. Rabbits and horses were immunized with human alpha-fetoprotein, and it was observed that the animals produced antibodies reaction not only with human alpha-fetoprotein but with their homologous alpha-fetoproteins. The results were interpreted as the breakdown of the tolerance to their own alpha-f...
Warme PK, Scheraga HA.The reported X-ray structure of horse-heart ferricytochrome c has been refined by conformational energy calculations, using a three-stage computational procedure. In stage I, the atomic positions are adjusted to conform to idealized bond lengths and bond angles characteristic of small amino acid derivatives, while yet remaining as close as possible to the X-ray coordinates. In stage II, atomic overlaps are eliminated by adjusting the backbone and side-chain dihedral angles to minimize the nonbonded energy, hydrogen-bonded energy, and rotational energy contributions. In the final stage of refin...
Warme PK.Conformational energies have been evaluated for each of the staggered side-chain conformations associated with the 261 amino acid substitutions known to occur among 60 eucaryotic species. At least 86% of these substitutions can be sterically accommodated (one at a time) within the structure of horse-heart cytochrome c resulting from conformational energy refinement. Simultaneous incorporation of all pertinent amino acid substitutions found in eight representative species into the refined horse-heart structure is also shown to be sterically possible, with few exceptions. In two cases (Pekin duc...
Ishitani K, Listowsky I.Horse spleen ferritin was fractionated into its constituent isoferritins by isoelectric focusing. Separated isoferritins were stable and showed no tendency to redistribute when re-examined by analytical gel focusing. All of the isoferritins were immunologically indistinguishable when tested with antibodies raised against unfractionated horse spleen ferritin. The separated isoferritins also had similar conformations as determined by circular dichroism. Iron distribution studies, however, revealed a wide disparity among the isoferritins. The most acidic components had the lowest iron content but...
Takeuchi K, Shibata N, Senda N.Myosin was isolated from leucocytes in horse arterial blood by the same procedures used for the isolation of myosin from skeletal muscle. The Ca2+-, EDTA-, and Mg2+-ATPase [EC 3.6.1.3] activities of the protein was 0.148, 0.147, and 0.001 mumoles/min/mg, respectively, in 0.5 M KCl at pH 7.0 and 25 degrees. The Ca2+-ATPase activity decreased with decrease in the ionic strength. No difference was found between leucocyte myosin and skeletal myosin in the pH profiles of Ca2+- and EDTA-ATPases. The rate and amount of the initial burst of Pi liberation of leucocyte myosin were 0.002 mumoles/min/mg a...
Ramponi G, Manao G, Camici G, White GF.It has been shown that horse muscle acylphosphatase is inhibited by pyridoxal 5'-phosphate and that the inhibition is pH dependent, reversible and competitive with respect to substrate binding. Spectral analysis on the EI complex demonstrates the presence of a Schiff base. Reduction of the pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-inhibited enzyme with sodium borohydride, followed by amino acid analysis, produces a diminution of the free lysine peak and the appearance of a new peak corresponding to epsilon-pyridoxyllysine. The results suggest that there is at least one NH2-lysyl residue of horse muscle acylphosp...
Darbre PD, Romero-Herrera AE, Lehmann H.The tryptic and peptic peptides from the myoglobin of the zebra (Equus burchelli) have been compared with those obtained from the myoglobin of the horse (Equus caballus). No differences in the myoglobin were found between these two species.
Kamerling JP, Vliegenthart JF.A number of O-acetylated N-acylneuraminic acids, isolated from submandibular glands of cow and horse and from horse erythrocytes, have been characterized by mass spectrometry. On the basis of the typical fragmentation patterns of the pertrimethylsilyl derivatives of the methyl esters of the compounds, they were identified as 4-O-acetyl-, 9-O-acetyl-, 4,9-di-O-acetyl-, and 7,9-di-O-acetyl N-acetylneuraminic acid, and 4-O-acetyl-and 9-O-acetyl-N-glycolylneuraminic acid.
Carraway KL, Colton DG, Shin BC, Triplett RB.Bovine and equine erythrocytes have been studied by three different surface modification techniques to investigate the accessibility of the surface components to the external medium. Lactoperoxidase labeling of equine erythrocytes results in a significant labeling of only one membrane component, a 100 000-mol.wt polypeptide corresponding to the membrane-spanning Component III of human erythrocytes. The major sialoglycoprotein of the equine erythrocyte is not labeled. This is in contradistinction to the situation for human and bovine cells, where both components are labeled. The equine membrane...
Yagisawa S.One mole of horse hemoglobin tetramer reacts with 2 moles of 2-chloromercuri-4-nitrophenol (MNP) at beta 93 cysteine. The difference spectra between NMP-bound hemoglobin and hemoglobin, measured with the aid of ascorbic acid and ascorate oxidase [EC 1.10.3.3] as deoxygenation reagents, indicate that the pK of the phenolic hydroxyl group of MNP increases by 0.6 to 0.8 pH unit on deoxygenation of the hemoglobin. The Hill constant of the modified hemoglobin changes with pH. It decreases from about 2.4 at pH 6.8 to about 1.0 at pH 9.0 This effect of the reagent is interpreted as inherent to the re...
Nowicka B, Polkowska I, Zeliszewska-Duk P, Torres A, Duk M.Similarly, in humans and horses, thoracic and lumbosacral back pain cause more disability and work interruptions worldwide than any other disease. Given that there are few effective treatments for back pain in humans and animals, primary prevention strategies and a reduction in pain factors may be crucial. In the analysed data obtained for the horses studied, the pattern of changes in adipocytokine concentrations, including resistin, visfatin and leptin, was noted for those with back pain compared to the control animals. Concentrations of selected adipocytokines in horses from the back pain gr...
Faulk C.Sequencing a genome by students has now become practical as we demonstrated with our recent publication of the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) genome. In this review, I describe my experience teaching genome assembly in the classroom. In my course, students sequenced, assembled, and published a high-quality genome for Przewalski's horse using Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing with only $4000 of materials. Along with the genome, we assembled the mitochondrial genome, sequence variants, predicted gene annotations, and DNA methylation levels. Our genome statistics far exceeded the...
Alim S, Cheppali SK, Pawar SS, Swamy MJ.Fibronectin type-II (FnII) proteins are major constituents in the seminal plasma of many mammals and play a crucial role in sperm capacitation. Additionally, the seminal FnII proteins from bull and horse exhibit chaperone-like activity (CLA), by acting as small heat shock proteins (shsps). The present work demonstrates that the major FnII protein of donkey seminal plasma, DSP-1 exhibits CLA with broad specificity and protects various client proteins such as alcohol dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase and enolase against thermal and oxidative stress. Binding of phosphorylcholine (PrC) - the he...
van der Graaf L, Leigh W, Szmatoła T, Roberts K, Ryan S, Brown B, Van Buren S, Finno CJ, Petersen JL.Anhidrosis is defined as a decreased or absent ability to sweat in response to heat and exercise. In horses, this condition can increase the risk of life-threatening hyperthermia. A prior study has suggested that equine anhidrosis is associated with a missense variant (rs68643109) in the Potassium Voltage-Gated Channel Subfamily E Regulatory Subunit 4 (KCNE4) gene. This project aimed to validate this association in a population of well-phenotyped horses and to determine the allele frequency of this variant in publicly available whole-genome sequence data. Fifty horses within the University of ...
Fernandes TA, Paulino PG, Dos Santos Juliano D, Rabello CA, de Oliveira NVB, de Souza Santana M, Peckle M, Massard CL, da Costa Angelo I, Jacob JCF....Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is a reportable disease according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), caused by Babesia caballi, Theileria equi and T. haneyi. This syndrome is prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, including various areas in Brazilian. This study examines EP in the Distrito Federal, Brazil, focusing on prevalence, epidemiological characteristics, and circulating genotypes. Epidemiological data and whole blood samples were collected from horses in the Distrito Federal. DNA was analyzed using qPCR for Theileria sp. and B. caballi, followed by cPCR for 18S rDNA ...
Fedorka CE, Scoggin KE, Coleman SJ, Hatzel JN, Burleson MD, Troedsson MHT.Alterations during the early stages of embryo development have been associated with long-term effects on the fetus, neonate, and adult, but this has not been investigated in horses. In recent years, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has gained in commercial popularity in the equine population. Research suggests an association between ICSI-produced embryos and placental malformations, but there exists little understanding of the physiology involved. Therefore, we aim to produce a complete transcriptomic analysis of chorioallantois and provide potential pathways that may be impacted follow...
Rosada T, Lis K, Bartuzi Z, Ukleja-Sokołowska N.The domestic horse is the third most common source of animal allergens. Currently, five equine allergens have been classified (Equ c 1, 2, 3, 4, 6). Despite the apparently low exposure to allergens, equine allergy is still of great clinical importance. The aim of the study was to analyze equine allergy based on the results of ImmunoCAP ISAC and Allergy Xplorer ALEX tests. The study was retrospective. A total of 1553 patients were analyzed. Immunological tests were performed using the ImmunoCAP ISAC and Allergy Xplorer ALEX systems. From all the results, those with a positive result for at leas...
Ma Z, Li Y, Zhao Z, Song Q, Wang Q, Lu S, Wang J.In this study, we purified and identified antioxidant peptides from equine plasma protein hydrolysates and assessed their protective effects against HO-induced oxidative stress in Caco-2 cells. Four antioxidant peptides were identified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in equine plasma protein hydrolysate, namely: GTMVGC (567.69 Da), FGMTST (662.88 Da), VGYHSHF (847.01 Da) and ALSPFFKE (939.18 Da). Among them, ALSPFFKE showed the strongest antidigestive properties after modelled digestion studies. Moreover, ALSPFFKE enhanced intracellular superoxide dismutase (SO...
Yu H, Raymonda JW, McMahon TM, Campagnari AA.This article reviews the recent development of two solid-phase chemiluminescence-based techniques, fluorogenic-chemiluminescence (FCL) and electro-chemiluminescence (ECL) for detection of biological threat agents. Both techniques entail a labeled sandwich immunoassay. The objectives of this work are to develop advanced techniques for sensitive and effective detection of a target analyte, particularly in cases where the analysis includes complex samples containing multiple contaminating factors. Other important considerations in developing such detection techniques include the ease of use, the ...
Sun Y, Yu YT, Castillo XO, Anderson R, Wang M, Sun Q, Tallmadge R, Sams K, Reboul G, Zehr J, Brown J, Wang X, Marra N, Stanhope B, Grenier J....Fever of unknown origin (FUO) without a respiratory component is a frequent clinical presentation in horses. Multiple pathogens, both tick-borne and enteric, can be involved as etiologic agents. An additional potential mechanism is intestinal barrier dysfunction. This case-control study aimed to detect and associate microbial taxa in blood with disease state. Areas known for a high prevalence of tick-borne diseases in humans were chosen to survey horses with FUO, which was defined as fever of 101.5°F or higher with no signs of respiratory illness or other recognisable diseases. Blood samples ...
Yokomori T, Tozaki T, Segawa T, Itou T.Previous studies have examined the relationship between hair characteristics and temperament traits in various animals. A partial genetic association has been suggested in humans because whorl formation and neurological development occur simultaneously during the fetal period. In the horse industry, anecdotal evidence suggests a link between the forehead whorl position and temperament. In our previous study, the heritability of forehead whorl positioning was h=0.653, indicating significant genetic contributions in thoroughbreds. Therefore, in this study, we designed a genome-wide association s...
Pipereau K, Trably E, Santa-Catalina G, García-Bernet D, Carrere H.This study focuses on thermal and non-thermal effects of microwave pretreatment on horse dung as indigenous inoculum before xylose and wheat straw fermentation, emphasizing metabolite production and microbial community changes. Two horse dung microwave pretreatments (MW40°C and MW95°C) were compared with a conventional thermal pretreatment (Th95°C) and an unpretreated condition (Ctrl). Microwave heating pretreatment (MW95°C) leads to similar production as a conventional thermal pretreatment (Th95°C) for xylose and wheat straw fermentation while MW40°C treatment was similar to the control...
Gugole PM, Zannoni A, Forni M, Iacono E, Zambelli F, Merlo B.This study investigates the effects of overnight holding and naloxone (Nx) supplementation on the vitrification outcomes of equine immature oocytes. Oocytes were divided into six experimental groups based on treatment combinations: fresh (F) and held (H) control oocytes, oocytes vitrified with or without Nx (10 M) (VIT and VIT-Nx), oocytes vitrified after overnight holding with or without Nx (10 M) (H-VIT and H-VIT-Nx). They were assessed for survival, meiotic competence, intracellular oxidative stress, mitochondrial activity and distribution, apoptosis, and apoptotic gene expression. At sur...
Frontiers in geneticsFebruary 27, 2025
Volume 16 1534461 doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1534461
Barber AM, Kingsley NB, Peng S, Giulotto E, Bellone RR, Finno CJ, Kalbfleisch T, Petersen JL.The Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) consortium aims to annotate animal genomes across species, and work in the horse has substantially contributed to that goal. As part of this initiative, chromatin immunoprecipitation with sequencing (ChIP-seq) was performed to identify histone modifications corresponding to enhancers (H3K4me1), promoters (H3K4me3), activators (H3K27ac), and repressors (H3K27me3) in eight tissues from two Thoroughbred stallions: adipose, parietal cortex, heart, lamina, liver, lung, skeletal muscle, and testis. The average genome coverage of peaks identified by...
Kawanishi N, Kinoshita Y, Reedy SE, Garvey M, Kambayashi Y, Bannai H, Tsujimura K, Yamanaka T, Cullinane A, Chambers TM, Nemoto M.Equine influenza virus (EIV) is one of the most important pathogens causing respiratory signs in equids. Rapid antigen detection (RAD) kits are useful for point-of-care testing because they are user-friendly and provide fast results. Although sensitive and broad-reactive RAD kits are needed for controlling horse movement, no RAD kits specified for EIV are available. Objective: This study evaluated the usefulness of seven RAD kits originally developed for human influenza and available in Japan during 2023-2024 for EIV antigen detection. Methods: Experimental assay comparison. Methods: The detec...
Peris MP, Serrano M, Romero A, García M, Halaihel N, Castillo JA, Gracia MJ.Equine piroplasmosis (EP), a tick-borne disease caused by Babesia caballi and Theileria equi, is of significant concern due to its impact on the international horse trade. According to standards established by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), horses imported from EP-endemic regions must have a certificate confirming negative serological and molecular test results. In EP-free countries, only seronegative horses are allowed to enter. This entails economic losses for endemic regions such as Spain. Our study aimed to assess the prevalence of B. caballi and T. equi in horses from no...
Chen X, Gulbahar K, Ding H, Nie C, Gao X.Horse milk is a highly valuable organic food that is a promising alternative to cow milk, exhibiting plenty of healthy and immune benefits to human. However, identification of proteins associated human wellness and underlying molecular mechanism in horse milk remain unclear. Unassigned: Label-free mass spectrometry-based protein quantification technology was employed to investigate protein composition of animal milk, including cow, goat, camel and horse milk. Prokaryotic expression and disk diffusion assay were applied to acquire and evaluate antimicrobial activity of candidate proteins. RAW2...
Pusterla N, Lawton K, Barnum S, Magdesian KG.In recent years, the use of non-invasive host and environmental samples for the detection and monitoring of equine respiratory pathogens has shown promise and a high overall agreement with the gold standard of nasal secretions. The present study looked at comparing nose wipes, stall sponges, and air samples with nasal swabs collected from 27 horses involved in an equine influenza (EI) outbreak. The outbreak involved 5 clinical, 6 subclinical, and 16 uninfected horses. Samples sets were collected at the onset of the index case and retested every 2-3 days thereafter until all horses tested qPCR-...
Sigurðardóttir H, Eriksson S, Niazi A, Rhodin M, Albertsdóttir E, Kristjansson T, Lindgren G.Selection for performance in horse breeding benefits from precise genetic insights at a molecular level, but knowledge remains limited. This study used whole-genome sequences of 39 elite and non-elite Icelandic horses to identify candidate causal variants linked to previously identified haplotypes in the STAU2 and RELN genes affecting pace and other gaits. A frameshift variant in linkage disequilibrium with the previously identified haplotypes in the STAU2 gene (r2 = 0.85) was identified within a predicted STAU2 transcript. This variant alters the amino acid sequence and introduces a prema...
The potential of effective microorganisms in composting animal manure might be significant. This work aimed at isolating promising microbial strains for composting cattle and horse manure. A total of forty-five isolates have been isolated from soils of Northern Kazakhstan as well as cattle and horse manure. These microorganisms were extensively studied for their cellulose-degrading capacity, non-pathogenicity, protease, nitrogenase and catalase activities, as well as their growth stimulation, antagonistic ability, and growth rate. As a result, 21 potent strains were selected and genotyped for ...
Quatember H, Nell B, Richter B, Rigler D, Dolezal M, Sykora S, Wallner B.A missense mutation in damage-specific DNA binding protein 2 (DDB2 c.1013 C>T; p.Thr338Met) has been described as a risk factor for ocular squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in the Haflinger breed. Here, we examined the impact of DDB2 C>T allele status on the development of OSCC, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) at other localisations, or equine sarcoid (ES) in Haflingers and other breeds with a high incidence of these tumour types. We genotyped affected Haflinger, Noriker, Warmblood, and Icelandic horses. Results based on 56 Haflingers confirmed the significantly higher risk for OSCC in DDB2-TT Hafl...
Obradovic NA, McFadden A, Martin K, Vierra M, McLoone K, Martin E, Thomas A, Everts RE, Brooks SA, Lafayette C.This paper reports three novel KIT variants likely responsible for previously unexplained white patterning phenotypes observed in three groups of horses. White spots and markings may have substantial consequences on the value and health of domesticated horses. This study aims to elucidate the genetic mechanisms underlying depigmented coat colors to aid in producing prosperous herds. Aligned whole genome sequences were manually screened to identify three polymorphisms in a family of Anglo-Arabian horses (N = 7), a family of Warmblood horses (N = 5), and a single stock-type mare with unexplained...
Kushida C, Usui T, Tamura N, Kasashima Y, Sato K, Arai K.This study evaluated the effects of cell adhesion substrates that lead to the generation of equine-induced pluripotent stem cells (eiPSC) from embryonic skin fibroblasts by lipofection of plasmid vectors expressing five reprogramming factors. The reprogramming efficiency of cells induced on the E8 fragment of laminin-511 (eiPSC-511) was higher than that on Geltrex containing laminin-111 as a major laminin (eiPSC-111), and supplementation with a cocktail of small molecular compounds increased the number of iPSC colonies on both substrates. In the cell proliferation assay, eiPSC-511 showed highe...
Poh KC, Oyen K, Onzere CK, Kappmeyer LS, Bastos RG.The recent discovery of , a tick-borne hemoparasite that causes mild clinical signs of equine piroplasmosis, has added complexity to the diagnosis of this reportable disease, which is prevalent among equids globally. Knowledge gaps regarding competent tick vectors that can transmit and the recent outbreak of in the US has prompted us to conduct this study. Our objective was to investigate whether can transstadially transmit to horses. Unassigned: larvae (0.5 g) and nymphs ( = 500) were fed on a splenectomized -infected horse for parasite acquisition. During the tick feeding period, ...
Castanheira CIGD, Anderson JR, Clarke EJ, Hackl M, James V, Clegg PD, Peffers MJ.This study describes a novel technique to analyze the extracellular vesicle (EV)-derived microRNA (miRNA) crosstalk between equine chondrocytes and synoviocytes. Donor cells (chondrocytes, n = 8; synoviocytes, n = 9) were labelled with 5-ethynyl uridine (5-EU); EVs were isolated from culture media and incubated with recipient cells (chondrocytes [n = 5] were incubated with synoviocyte-derived EVs, and synoviocytes [n = 4] were incubated with chondrocyte-derived EVs). Total RNA was extracted from recipient cells; the 5-EU-labelled RNA was recovered and sequenced. Differential expression analysi...
Liu D, Zhao X, Wang X.Equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), EHV-4, EHV-8, and EHV-9, are classified within the subfamily and are recognized as causative agents of respiratory, urogenital, and neurological disorders in horses. These viruses, collectively referred to as αEHVs, exhibits both unique and shared characteristics in terms of host interaction, pathogenesis, epidemiology, and immune evasion, which arise from both the identities and discrepancies among respective genomic homologs. The genomic architecture of αEHVs is similar to other members of the same subfamily, such as well-known HSV-1, VZV, and PRV. However, r...
Baatar T, Song D, Weng Y, Wang G, Jin L, Guo R, Li B, Dugarjaviin M.The epigenetic regulation of gene expression through the covalent modification of histones is crucial for developing germline cells. To study the regulatory role of alternative splicing (AS) of euchromatic histone lysine methyltransferase 2 (EHMT2/G9A) in spermatogenesis in Mongolian horses, this study first examines the localization of the EHMT2 gene in testicular support cells and then predicts the higher-order structures of sequences with and without AS. Two types of lentiviral vectors for overexpression were subsequently constructed for the EHMT2 gene, one with AS and one without, to infec...
Cullinane A, Garvey M, Dayot L, Lukaseviciute G.Equine rotavirus A (RVA) is a major cause of debilitating diarrhoea in neonatal foals globally. The aim of this study was to characterise RVA viruses currently circulating in Ireland and to identify risk factors associated with disease outbreaks. Of the 377 samples submitted during 2023 and 2024, 48 foals from 36 outbreaks were confirmed to be RVA-positive by real-time PCR. The viruses detected were genotyped by VP7 and VP4 gene sequencing. In 2024, the attending veterinary surgeon was contacted, and epidemiological data were collected. These included the vaccination status of the foal's dam a...
Pawlina-Tyszko K, Semik-Gurgul E, Podstawski P, Herc W, Witkowski M, Ropka-Molik K.Alterations in the genes involved in the creation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) were observed in our earlier transcriptome studies of sarcoids and their cell culture model. For a complete characterization of the underlying molecular pathways, it is imperative to comprehend the involvement of ECM modifications in the oncogenic transformation of sarcoid fibroblasts. Thus, the aim of this investigation was to describe the expression patterns of a set of genes that are essential for the rearrangements of the extracellular matrix, namely collagen genes, and elucidate possible mechanisms underly...
Li Y, Lan Y.The gut microbial importance and its crucial roles in host digestion, immunity, and metabolism have received widely attention. Horses, especially indigenous varieties such as Mongolian horses (MGH) and Guizhou horses (GZH), have not received sufficient attention, and the characteristics of their gut microbiota are still unclear. For this purpose, we collected faecal samples from eight MGH and eight GZH to compare their gut microbial differences using amplicon sequencing. The results of alpha diversity analysis indicated that the gut bacterial diversity and gut fungal abundance in GZH were sign...
