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.
Imam M, Alrashid B, Patel F, Dowah ASA, Brown N, Millard A, Clokie MRJ, Galyov EE.Phages are the most abundant biological entity on Earth. There are many variants in phage virion sizes, morphology, and genome sizes. Large virion sized phages, with genome sizes greater than 200 kbp have been identified and termed as Jumbo phages. These phages exhibit certain characteristics that have not been reported in phages with smaller genomes. In this work, a jumbo phage named MIJ3 (vB_PaeM_MIJ3) that infects PAO1 was isolated from an equine livery yard in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. The genome and biological characteristics of this phage have been investigated. MIJ3 is a Myovirus...
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...
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,...
Couso-Pérez S, de Limia FB, Ares-Mazás E, Gómez-Couso H.Studies on the prevalence and molecular characterization of Cryptosporidium spp. affecting feral horses are scarce. The highland areas of the northern Iberian Peninsula are home to a large population of wild ponies which generally roam free in the ancient natural range and are subjected to a traditional exploitation regime. In the present study, a total of 79 non-diarrhoeal faecal samples from the wild ponies were collected from the ground immediately after defecation. Cryptosporidium was detected in 10 of the samples (12.6%) by a direct immunofluorescence antibody test and DNA amplification a...
Ogorevc J, Poklukar K, Dovč P.Skin-derived tissue cultures are a useful model to study molecular mechanisms of skin renewal and pathogenesis of dermal diseases. Horses often suffer from skin diseases, skin trauma and problems with proper wound healing, which could be improved by in vitro grown keratinocyte grafts. Herein we describe establishment and characterization of equine skin-derived primary cell cultures, using enzymatic and explant methods. The established cell lines of primary equine keratinocytes (peK) maintained high proliferative capacity for over five passages and expressed different epithelial/keratinocyte-s...
Smith RM, Kotzé A, Grobler JP, Dalton DL.Toll-like receptors (TLR) are a family of proteins that signal activation of the innate immune response through the recognition of a variety of pathogen molecular compounds. Here, we characterized the complete TLR9 gene in Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra zebra) from three populations in South Africa and compared sequences to a variety of horse and donkey breeds. Overall, we identified six single nucleotide polymorpHisms (SNPs). A single SNP (G586S) was non-synonymous, whereas the remaining SNPs were synonymous. The G586S alteration was detected in Cape mountain zebra populations with varying ...
Cook SJ, Li G, Zheng Y, Willand ZA, Issel CJ, Cook RF.Although the equine lentivirus (equine infectious anemia virus [EIAV]) poses a major threat to equid populations throughout most regions of the world, detailed knowledge concerning its molecular epidemiology is still in its infancy. Such information is important because the few studies conducted to date suggest there is extensive genetic variation between viral isolates that if confirmed has significant implications for future vaccine design and development of newer diagnostic procedures. Here, we avoid potential assembly artifacts inherent in composite sequencing techniques by using long-rang...
Sp N, Kang DY, Kim DH, Lee HG, Park YM, Kim IH, Lee HK, Cho BW, Jang KJ, Yang YM.Cortisol is a hormone involved in stress during exercise. The application of natural compounds is a new potential approach for controlling cortisol-induced stress. Tumour suppressor protein p53 is activated during cellular stress. Succinate dehydrogenase complex subunit A () and hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase 1 () are considered to be two of the most stable reference genes when measuring stress during exercise in horses. In the present study cells were considered to be in a 'stressed state' if the levels of these stable genes and the highly stress responsive gene p53 were altered. It ...
Asif M, Parveen A, Ashraf S, Hussain M, Aktas M, Ozubek S, Shaikh RS, Iqbal F.The present study was designed to check the molecular detection of Anaplasma marginale and Theileria annulata in blood samples of horses and donkeys collected from Dera Ghazi Khan District in Punjab and to document their phylogenetic origin and their association with studied epidemiological factors (sex and age) and complete blood count parameters, if any. Results: A total of 195 blood samples were collected from apparently healthy horses (N = 141) and donkeys (N = 54). A. marginale DNA was detected by PCR in 4.9% (7/141) horse and in 9.2% (5/54) of donkey blood samples. Prevalence of ...
Leite RO, Ferreira JF, Araújo CET, Delfiol DJZ, Takahira RK, Borges AS, Oliveira-Filho JP.Glanzmann's thrombasthenia (GT) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder characterized by changes in platelet aggregation, leading to hemorrhage and epistaxis. To date, two independent mutations have been described in horses and associated with this disorder, a point mutation (c.122G > C) and a 10-base-pair deletion (g.1456_1466del) in the Integrin subunit alpha2β gene (ITGA2B) of horses of different breeds (Quarter Horse, Thoroughbred, Oldenburg, and Peruvian Paso). ITGA2B codifies the αIIb subunit of the αIIbβ3 integrin, also termed platelet fibrinogen receptor. Horses with GT have b...
Twenter H, Klohonatz K, Davis K, Bass L, Coleman SJ, Bouma GJ, Bruemmer JE.All epididymal regions are lined with multiple epithelial cell types, each with different functions to provide the luminal environment for spermatozoal maturation. Epithelial cells also create apical blebs, which are released from the apical surface via apocrine secretion and disintegrate in the lumen, thereby releasing epididymosomes. Epididymosomes transport proteins to spermatozoa and contain microRNAs. We hypothesized that epididymosomes also transfer miRNA from epididymal epithelium to spermatozoa. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine miRNA profiles of ep...
De Angelis E, Cacchioli A, Ravanetti F, Bileti R, Cavalli V, Martelli P, Borghetti P.Chondrocyte dedifferentiation is a key limitation in therapies based on autologous chondrocyte implantation for cartilage repair. Articular chondrocytes, obtained from (metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal) joints of different aged horses, were cultured in monolayer for several passages (P0 to P8). Cumulative Populations Doublings Levels (PDL) and gene expression of relevant chondrocyte phenotypic markers were analysed during culturing. Overall data confirmed that, during proliferation in vitro, horse chondrocytes undergo marked morphological and phenotypic alterations of their differen...
Oladunni FS, Reedy S, Balasuriya UBR, Horohov DW, Chambers TM.Equine herpesvirus type 4 (EHV-4) is mildly pathogenic but is a common cause of respiratory disease in horses worldwide. We previously demonstrated that unlike EHV-1, EHV-4 is not a potent inducer of type-I IFN and does not suppress that IFN response, especially during late infection, when compared to EHV-1 infection in equine endothelial cells (EECs). Here, we investigated the impact of EHV-4 infection in EECs on type-I IFN signaling molecules at 3, 6, and 12 hpi. Findings from our study revealed that EHV-4 did not induce nor suppress TLR3 and TLR4 expression in EECs at all the studied time...
Fedorka CE, Loux SL, Scoggin KE, Adams AA, Troedsson MHT, Ball BA.The tolerance of pregnancy by the maternal immune system is balanced between recognition and protection. In the human this is controlled by balancing helper T cell populations (Th1, Th2) in addition to immune suppression from the regulatory arm (Tregs), but this has not been evaluated in the horse. RNA sequencing was performed on chorioallantois and endometrium of mares at 120, 180, 300 and 330 days of gestation (n = 4/stage), as well as 45-day chorioallantois (n = 4) and diestrus endometrium (n = 3). Transcripts were selected for relativity to Th1, Th2, or Treg-associated. qPCR an...
Centromeres exert an inhibitory effect on meiotic recombination, but the possible contribution of satellite DNA to this "centromere effect" is under debate. In the horse, satellite DNA is present at all centromeres with the exception of the one from chromosome 11. This organization of centromeres allowed us to investigate the role of satellite DNA on recombination suppression in horse spermatocytes at the stage of pachytene. To this aim we analysed the distribution of the MLH1 protein, marker of recombination foci, relative to CENP-A, marker of centromeric function. We demonstrated that the sa...
Kato Y, Sayama Y, Sano M, Kaneko MK.Podoplanin (PDPN), which is a mucin-type membrane glycoprotein, is expressed on lymphatic endothelial cells and epithelial cells of many organs. PDPN is also overexpressed in several malignant cancers, and its expression is associated with cancer progression and poor prognosis. Human PDPN possesses three platelet aggregation-stimulating (PLAG) domains and the PLAG-like domain (PLD), which binds to C-type lectin-like receptor-2 (CLEC-2). Previously, we reported a novel antihorse PDPN (horPDPN) monoclonal antibody (mAb), PMab-219, using Cell-Based Immunization and Screening (CBIS) method. PMab-2...
Tanaka J, Leeb T, Rushton J, Famula TR, Mack M, Jagannathan V, Flury C, Bachmann I, Eberth J, McDonnell SM, Penedo MCT, Bellone RR.Mushroom is a unique coat color phenotype in Shetland Ponies characterized by the dilution of the chestnut coat color to a sepia tone and is hypothesized to be a recessive trait. A genome wide association study (GWAS), utilizing the Affymetrix 670K array (MNEc670k) and a single locus mixed linear model analysis (EMMAX), identified a locus on ECA7 for further investigation ( = 2.08 × 10). This locus contained a 3 Mb run of homozygosity in the 12 mushroom ponies tested. Analysis of high throughput Illumina sequencing data from one mushroom Shetland pony compared to 87 genomes from horses of var...
Klohonatz KM, Coleman SJ, Cameron AD, Hess AM, Reed KJ, Canovas A, Medrano JF, Islas-Trejo AD, Kalbfleisch T, Bouma GJ, Bruemmer JE.Maternal recognition of pregnancy (MRP) in the mare is not well defined. In a non-pregnant mare, prostaglandin F (PGF) is released on day 14 post-ovulation (PO) to cause luteal regression, resulting in loss of progesterone production. Equine MRP occurs prior to day 14 to halt PGF production. Studies have failed to identify a gene candidate for MRP, so attention has turned to small, non-coding RNAs. The objective of this study was to evaluate small RNA (<200 nucleotides) content in endometrium during MRP. Mares were used in a cross-over design with each having a pregnant and non-mated cycle. Ea...
Tozaki T, Kusano K, Ishikawa Y, Kushiro A, Nomura M, Kikuchi M, Kakoi H, Hirota K, Miyake T, Hill EW, Nagata S.Fractures are medical conditions that compromise the athletic potential of horses and/or the safety of jockeys. Therefore, the reduction of fracture risk is an important horse and human welfare issue. The present study used molecular genetic approaches to determine the effect of genetic risk for fracture at four candidate SNPs spanning the myostatin (MSTN) gene on horse chromosome 18. Among the 3706 Japanese Thoroughbred racehorses, 1089 (29.4%) had experienced fractures in their athletic life, indicating the common occurrence of this injury in Thoroughbreds. In the case/control association st...
Blanco-Lobo P, Rodriguez L, Reedy S, Oladunni FS, Nogales A, Murcia PR, Chambers TM, Martinez-Sobrido L.Vaccination remains the most effective approach for preventing and controlling equine influenza virus (EIV) in horses. However, the ongoing evolution of EIV has increased the genetic and antigenic differences between currently available vaccines and circulating strains, resulting in suboptimal vaccine efficacy. As recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the inclusion of representative strains from clade 1 and clade 2 Florida sublineages of EIV in vaccines may maximize the protection against presently circulating viral strains. In this study, we used reverse genetics tech...
Gonzalez-Castro RA, Amoroso-Sanches F, Stokes JE, Graham JK, Carnevale EM.Oocyte activation is initiated when a fertilising spermatozoon delivers sperm-borne oocyte-activating factor(s) into the oocyte cytoplasm. Candidates for oocyte activation include two proteins, phospholipase Cζ1 (PLCZ1) and postacrosomal WW-binding protein (PAWP; also known as WBP2 N-terminal like (WBP2NL)). We localised PLCZ1 and WBP2NL/PAWP in stallion spermatozoa and investigated the PLCZ1 content and sperm parameters as well as cleavage after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). PLCZ1 was identified as 71-kDa protein in the acrosomal and postacrosomal regions, midpiece and principal p...
Olguin-Perglione C, Vissani MA, Alamos F, Tordoya MS, Barrandeguy M.Equine influenza is an important cause of respiratory disease of horses worldwide. The equine influenza virus (EIV) undergoes antigenic drift through the accumulation of amino acid substitutions in the viral proteins, which may lead to vaccine breakdown. Objective: To describe the epidemiological findings and the molecular characteristics of the EIV detected during the multifocal outbreak that occurred in Argentina between March and July 2018 and evidence a vaccine breakdown. Methods: Observational, descriptive study. Methods: Virus was detected in nasopharyngeal swabs using real-time reverse ...
Magma (New York, N.Y.)October 4, 2019
Volume 33, Issue 2 299-307 doi: 10.1007/s10334-019-00781-z
Palfrey RM, Summers IR, Winlove CP.Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine partition coefficients and characteristic time constants for diffusion of MRI contrast agents in disc tissue. Methods: Twenty-two excised equine intervertebral discs were exposed to a range of contrast agents: six to manganese chloride, eight to Magnevist (gadopentetate dimeglumine) and eight to Gadovist (gadobutrol), and uptake into the disc was quantified in T-weighted images. Results: Diffusion for all contrast agents was approximately 25% faster in the nucleus than in the outer annulus; disc-average time constants ranged from (2...
Sutton G, Garvey M, Cullinane A, Jourdan M, Fortier C, Moreau P, Foursin M, Gryspeerdt A, Maisonnier V, Marcillaud-Pitel C, Legrand L, Paillot R....Equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) is an Alphaherpesvirus infecting not only horses but also other equid and non-equid mammals. It can cause respiratory distress, stillbirth and neonatal death, abortion, and neurological disease. The different forms of disease induced by EHV-1 infection can have dramatic consequences on the equine industry, and thus the virus represents a great challenge for the equine and scientific community. This report describes the progress of a major EHV-1 outbreak that took place in Normandy in 2009, during which the three forms of disease were observed. A collection of EHV-1...
Walewska E, Wołodko K, Skarzynski D, Ferreira-Dias G, Galvão A.The regulation of corpus luteus (CL) luteolysis is a complex process involving a myriad of factors. Previously, we have shown the involvement of Nodal in functional luteolysis in mares. Presently, we ask the extent of which Nodal mediation of luteolysis is done through regulation of angioregression. We demonstrated the interaction between Nodal and hypoxia-inducible factor 1 α (HIF1α) and thrombospondin 1/thrombospondin receptor (TSP1/CD36) systems, could mediate angioregression during luteolysis. First, we demonstrated the inhibitory effect of Nodal on the vascular marker platelet/endotheli...
Raudsepp T, Finno CJ, Bellone RR, Petersen JL.The horse reference genome from the Thoroughbred mare Twilight has been available for a decade and, together with advances in genomics technologies, has led to unparalleled developments in equine genomics. At the core of this progress is the continuing improvement of the quality, contiguity and completeness of the reference genome, and its functional annotation. Recent achievements include the release of the next version of the reference genome (EquCab3.0) and generation of a reference sequence for the Y chromosome. Horse satellite-free centromeres provide unique models for mammalian centromer...
Klohonatz KM, Coleman SJ, Islas-Trejo AD, Medrano JF, Hess AM, Kalbfleisch T, Thomas MG, Bouma GJ, Bruemmer JE.Equine maternal recognition of pregnancy (MRP) is a process whose signal remains unknown. During MRP the conceptus and endometrium communicate to attenuate prostaglandin F (PGF) secretion, sparing the corpus luteum and maintaining progesterone production. Recognition of a mobile conceptus by the endometrium is critical by days 14-16 post-ovulation (PO), when endometrium produces PGF, initiating luteolysis. The objective of this study was to evaluate endometrial gene expression changes based upon pregnancy status via RNA sequencing. This experiment utilized a cross-over design with each mare se...
Pechacek D, Hwangbo M, Moreland R, Liu M, Ramsey J. 4s is a Gram-negative bacterium found in the equine intestinal ecosystem alongside diverse other coliform bacteria and bacteriophages. This announcement describes the complete genome of the T7-like 4s podophage Penshu1. From its 39,263-bp genome, 54 protein-encoding genes and a 179-bp terminal repeat were predicted.
Hatam-Nahavandi K, Ahmadpour E, Carmena D, Spotin A, Bangoura B, Xiao L.Cryptosporidium spp. are causative agents of gastrointestinal diseases in a wide variety of vertebrate hosts. Mortality resulting from the disease is low in livestock, although severe cryptosporidiosis has been associated with fatality in young animals. Methods: The goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to review the prevalence and molecular data on Cryptosporidium infections in selected terrestrial domestic and wild ungulates of the families Bovidae (bison, buffalo, cattle, goat, impala, mouflon sheep, sheep, yak), Cervidae (red deer, roe deer, white-tailed deer), Camelidae (al...
Scholtzek AD, Hanke D, Walther B, Eichhorn I, Stöckle SD, Klein KS, Gehlen H, Lübke-Becker A, Schwarz S, Feßler AT.The detection of borderline oxacillin-resistant (BORSA) represents a challenge to both, veterinary and human laboratories. Between 2015 and 2017, 19 equine with elevated minimal inhibitory concentrations for oxacillin were detected in routine diagnostics. The aim of this study was to characterize these isolates to identify factors possibly associated with the BORSA phenotype. All were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing and whole genome sequencing (WGS). A quantifiable β-lactamase activity assay was performed for a representative subset of 13 isolates. The WGS data analysis o...
The Journal of heredityFebruary 21, 2008
Volume 99, Issue 2 130-136 doi: 10.1093/jhered/esm115
Rieder S, Hagger C, Obexer-Ruff G, Leeb T, Poncet PA.White markings and spotting patterns in animal species are thought to be a result of the domestication process. They often serve for the identification of individuals but sometimes are accompanied by complex pathological syndromes. In the Swiss Franches-Montagnes horse population, white markings increased vastly in size and occurrence during the past 30 years, although the breeding goal demands a horse with as little depigmented areas as possible. In order to improve selection and avoid more excessive depigmentation on the population level, we estimated population parameters and breeding value...
Szeredi L, Tenk M, Jánosi S, Pálfi V, Hotzel H, Sachse K, Pospischil A, Bozsó M, Glávits R, Molnár T.Cases of equine abortion and perinatal foal losses were investigated in Hungary during a three-year period (1998-2000). Samples from aborted equine fetuses and newborn foals (total n = 96) were examined using bacteriological, virological, pathological, immunohistochemical (IHC), molecular biological and serological methods. The cause of abortion and perinatal foal loss was identified in 67/96 cases (70%); viral infection was found in 22 (23%), viral and bacterial coinfection in 1 (1%), bacterial infection in 23 (24%), protozoan infection in 1 (1%) and fungal infection in 2 cases (2%). Morpholo...
Saito S, Sawai K, Minamihashi A, Ugai H, Murata T, Yokoyama KK.We describe here the isolation and maintenance of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells from equine blastocysts that have been frozen and thawed. Equine ES cells appear to maintain a normal diploid karyotype in culture. These cells express markers that are characteristic of mouse ES cells, namely, alkaline phosphatase, stage-specific-embryonic antigen 1, STAT3, and Oct4. We also describe protocols for the induction of differentiation in vitro to neural precursor cells in the presence of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor, and platelet-derived growth factor and to he...
van Berlo MF, Rottier PJ, Horzinek MC, van der Zeijst BA.Equine arteritis virus (EAV) is a nonarthropod-borne togavirus. Six virus-specific RNA species have been found in EAV-infected cells having the following molecular weights: 4.3 X 10(6) (RNA1), 1.3 X 10(6) (RNA2), 0.9 X 10(6) (RNA3), 0.7 X 10(6) (RNA4), 0.3 X 10(6) (RNA5), and 0.2 X 10(6) (RNA6). RNA1 comigrates with the viral genome (M. F. Van Berlo, M. C. Horzinek, and B. A. M. Van der Zeijst, 1982, Virology 118, 345-352). All RNAs hybridized with a radio-labeled cDNA probe representing RNA6, indicating that they contain common sequences. To study this homology in more detail, RNase T1 oligon...
Sunday Idoko I, Tirosh-Levy S, Leszkowicz Mazuz M, Mohammed Adam B, Sikiti Garba B, Wesley Nafarnda D, Steinman A.Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is a tick-borne disease of equids, caused by the two haemoprotozoal parasites: and Nigeria constitutes a major crossroads of animal transport in West Africa and may serve as a factor in EP dissemination in the region. The study aim was to characterize EP parasites in donkeys and horses in northern Nigeria using a molecular approach. Blood was collected from 57 donkeys and 47 horses. EP infection was detected and characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Twenty five donkeys (43.8%) were infected with , five (8.8%) with three (5.3%) with dual infections. Four...
Tetaz T, Detzner S, Friedlein A, Molitor B, Mary JL.The separation of intact proteins by means of Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography (HILIC) was demonstrated with human apoA-I, recombinant human apoM, and equine cytochrome C. Five different commercially available HILIC columns were compared. Using one of these columns, different glycosylated isoforms of apoM were separated from each other and from the aglyco-form.
Passamonti F, Veronesi F, Cappelli K, Capomaccio S, Reginato A, Miglio A, Vardi DM, Stefanetti V, Coletti M, Bazzica C, Pepe M.Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a multi-systemic tick-borne disease affecting both humans and animals, including horses, and is caused by a group of interrelated spirochetes classified within the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex. Despite the high reported seroprevalence in the European equine population for B. burgdorferi s.l., to-date no documented clinical cases have been described. A 6-year-old Paint gelding was referred with a history of three weeks of fever, intermittent lameness and digital flexor tendon sheath effusion of the right hind limb. Based on a strict diagnostic protocol...
Lichtenstein F, Iqbal A, de Lima Will SEA, Bosch RV, DeOcesano-Pereira C, Goldfeder MB, Chammas R, Trufen CEM, Morais KLP, de Souza JG, Natalino RJM....We have investigated Amblyomin-X-treated horse melanomas to better understand its mode of action through transcriptome analysis and the in vivo model. Amblyomin-X is a Kunitz-type homologous protein that selectively leads to the death of tumor cells via ER stress and apoptosis, currently under investigation as a new drug candidate for cancer treatment. Melanomas are immunogenic tumors, and a better understanding of the immune responses is warranted. Equine melanomas are spontaneous and not so aggressive as human melanomas are, as this study shows that the in vivo treatment of encapsulated hors...
Johnson R, Ramos-Vara J, Vemulapalli R.This report describes the characterization of a Bartonella henselae abortion in an equine fetus by gross, histologic, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural, and molecular methods. Bartonella henselae can cause cat scratch disease, bacillary angiomatosis, bacillary peliosis, and endocarditis in humans and other animals. The bacterium has been isolated from several mammalian species but only recently from equids; however, it has not been linked to abortion in equids. An aborted equine fetus exhibited necrosis and vasculitis in multiple tissues, with intralesional Gram-negative short-to-spirillar ...
Deng L, Li W, Zhong Z, Liu X, Chai Y, Luo X, Song Y, Wang W, Gong C, Huang X, Hu Y, Fu H, He M, Wang Y, Zhang Y, Wu K, Cao S, Peng G.Giardia intestinalis, a cosmopolitan zoonotic parasite, is one of the most common causes of protozoal diarrhea in both humans and animals worldwide. Although G. intestinalis has been detected in many animals, information regarding its prevalence and genotype in Chinese racehorses is scarce. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of G. intestinalis in racehorses and performed molecular characterization of the pathogen to assess its zoonotic potential. Two hundred and sixty-four racehorse fecal samples from six equestrian clubs located in different regions of the Sichuan province o...
De Angelis E, Cacchioli A, Ravanetti F, Bileti R, Cavalli V, Martelli P, Borghetti P.Chondrocyte dedifferentiation is a key limitation in therapies based on autologous chondrocyte implantation for cartilage repair. Articular chondrocytes, obtained from (metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal) joints of different aged horses, were cultured in monolayer for several passages (P0 to P8). Cumulative Populations Doublings Levels (PDL) and gene expression of relevant chondrocyte phenotypic markers were analysed during culturing. Overall data confirmed that, during proliferation in vitro, horse chondrocytes undergo marked morphological and phenotypic alterations of their differen...
Guerriero V, Raynes DA.Cultured bovine, equine, ovine and chicken lymphocytes responded to heat stress by the increased synthesis of a specific set of proteins known as heat stress proteins (HSP). Proteins with molecular weights of 70 and 90 kDa were synthesized in all species. Additional proteins were found in bovine, ovine and chicken lymphocytes. A time course of induction showed an increased synthesis of some of these proteins with only 30 min of heat stress and of several proteins with 60 min of heat stress. A specific monoclonal antibody was used to identify HSP70 as one of the stress proteins in bovine lympho...
Yang D, Nagayama K.The NMR relaxation technique was used to investigate the permeation of molecules into the cavity of ferritin. Spin-lattice relaxation times in the rotating frame of various probe molecules were measured for solutions of recombinant horse L-apoferritin without iron and horse spleen apoferritin with very small amounts of ferric ions. The results show that molecules larger than the size of the ferritin channels can pass through the channels into the ferritin interior, and that the maximum size of molecules for the permeation is smaller than maltotriose.
Woodward AD, Holcombe SJ, Steibel JP, Staniar WB, Colvin C, Trottier NL.To test the hypothesis that AA transporter transcripts are present in the large intestine and similarly expressed along the intestinal tract, mRNA abundance of candidate AA transporter genes solute carrier (SLC) family 7, member 9 (SLC7A9), SLC7A1, SLC7A8, and SLC43A1 encoding for b(0,+)-type AA transporter (b(0,+)AT), cationic AA transporter-1 (CAT-1), L-type AA transporter-2 (LAT-2), and L-type AA transporter-3 (LAT-3), respectively, was determined in small and large intestinal segments of the horse. Mucosa was collected from the equine small (jejunum and ileum) and large intestine (cecum, l...
Montgomery PC, Dorrington KJ, Rockey JH.Three independent methods have been used
to determine the molecular weights of the heavyand light-polypeptide chain subunits of equine yGab-,
yGc-, and yT-immunoglobulins. Extensively reduced
and alkylated proteins were filtered through standard
columns of Sephadex G-100 or G-200 in 8 M urea405
M propionic acid. Subunit molecular weights were obtained from the linear elution volume, V,, us. logarithm
molecular weight relationship defined for each column
with rabbit yG-globulin heavy and light chains and
horse heart cytochrome c. Molecular weights also were
determined by equilibrium se...
Hall SE, Aitken RJ, Nixon B, Smith ND, Gibb Z.Oxidative stress is a major determinant of mammalian sperm function stimulating lipid peroxidation cascades that culminate in the generation of potentially cytotoxic aldehydes. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of such aldehydes on the functionality of stallion spermatozoa. The impact of exposure to exogenous acrolein (ACR) and 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE) was manifested in a highly significant dose- and time-dependent increase in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS), total cellular ROS, a decrease in sperm motility, and a time-dependent increase in lipid peroxidation. Notably, ...
Sekhar VC, Plapp BV.The binding of NAD+ to liver alcohol dehydrogenase was studied by stopped-flow techniques in the pH range from 6.1 to 10.9 at 25 degrees C. Varying the concentrations of NAD+ and a substrate analogue used to trap the enzyme-NAD+ complex gave saturation kinetics. The same maximum rate constants were obtained with or without the trapping agent and by following the reaction with protein fluorescence or absorbance of a ternary complex. The data fit a mechanism with diffusion-controlled association of enzyme and NAD+, followed by an isomerization with a forward rate constant of 500 s-1 at pH 8: E E...
Guérin G, Bailey E, Bernoco D, Anderson I, Antczak DF, Bell K, Biros I, Bjørnstad G, Bowling AT, Brandon R, Caetano AR, Cholewinski G, Colling D....A low-density, male-based linkage map was constructed as one of the objectives of the International Equine Gene Mapping Workshop. Here we report the second generation map based on testing 503 half-sibling offspring from 13 sire families for 344 informative markers using the CRIMAP program. The multipoint linkage analysis localized 310 markers (90%) with 257 markers being linearly ordered. The map included 34 linkage groups representing all 31 autosomes and spanning 2262 cM with an average interval between loci of 10.1 cM. This map is a milestone in that it is the first map with linkage groups ...
van der Heide R, Koopmans MP, Shekary N, Houwers DJ, van Duynhoven YT, van der Poel WH.To gain more insight into interspecies transmission of rotavirus group A, human and animal fecal samples were collected between 1997 and 2001 in The Netherlands. A total of 110 human stool samples were successfully P and G genotyped by reverse transcriptase PCR. All strains belonged to the main human rotavirus genotypes G1 to G4, G9, [P4], [P6], [P8], and [P9]. [P8]G1 was predominant, and 5.5% belonged to the G9 genotype. Eleven percent of all P[8] genotypes could be genotyped only by a recently published modified primer. Rotavirus-positive fecal samples from 28 calf herds were genotyped by DN...
Knox A, Beddoe T.The global equine industry provides significant economic contributions worldwide, producing approximately USD $300 billion annually. However, with the continuous national and international movement and importation of horses, there is an ongoing threat of a viral outbreak causing large epidemics and subsequent significant economic losses. Additionally, horses serve as a host for several zoonotic diseases that could cause significant human health problems. The ability to rapidly diagnose equine viral diseases early could lead to better management, treatment, and biosecurity strategies. Current s...
Jiang Q, Wei Y, Huang Y, Jiang H, Guo Y, Lan G, Liao J.The Debao pony (Equus caballus) is the most important local variety of domestic horses, and is strictly protected by the Chinese government. Their average adult withers height is 94.42±3.76 cm for males and 98.35±4.55 cm for females, respectively. In the present study, the complete sequence of the Debao pony mitochondrial genome was determined (GenBank Accession No. EU939445), and was found to be similar to other equine mitochondrial genomes. However, there were 85 nucleotide substitutions in the 13 protein-coding genes; the percentage of substitution was 0.8±0.1. Polymorphisms of mtDNA con...
Stasiak K, Dunowska M, Hills SF, Rola J.Equid herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is a common viral infection associated with varied clinical outcomes including respiratory disease, abortion and neurological disease. We have characterized EHV-1 sequences (n = 38) obtained from cases of equine abortion in Poland between 1999 and 2016, based on sequencing of PCR products from open reading frames (ORF) 30 and 68 of the EHV-1 genome. The majority (81.6%) of sequences were not classified into any of the previously described groups based on the ORF68 sequence. The remaining sequences belonged to ORF68 group III (7.9%) or IV (10.5%). A haplotype ne...
Gregg AJ, Fortier LA, Mohammed HO, Mayr KG, Miller BJ, Haupt JL.To evaluate the effects of interleukin (IL)-1beta on proteoglycan metabolism in equine cartilage explants when cultured in the presence of synoviocytes. Methods: Samples of cartilage and synovium collected from the femoropatellar joints of three 2- to 3-year-old horses. Methods: 3 experimental groups were established: cartilage explants only, synoviocytes only, and cartilage explants-synoviocytes in coculture. In each group, samples were cultured with or without IL-1beta (10 ng/mL) for 96 hours. Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content of cartilage and medium samples was measured by use of a spectropho...
Hendriks WK, Colleoni S, Galli C, Paris DBBP, Colenbrander B, Stout TAE.Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is the technique of choice for equine IVF and, in a research setting, 18-36% of injected oocytes develop to blastocysts. However, blastocyst development in clinical programs is lower, presumably due to a combination of variable oocyte quality (e.g. from old mares), suboptimal culture conditions and marginal fertility of some stallions. Furthermore, mitochondrial constitution appears to be critical to developmental competence, and both maternal aging and invitro embryo production (IVEP) negatively affect mitochondrial number and function in murine and bovine emb...
Hulliger MF, Pacholewska A, Vargas A, Lavoie JP, Leeb T, Gerber V, Jagannathan V.Severe equine asthma is an incurable obstructive respiratory condition affecting 10-15% of horses in temperate climates. Upon exposure to airborne antigens from hay feeding, affected horses show neutrophilic airway inflammation and bronchoconstriction, leading to increased respiratory effort. The resulting implications range from welfare concerns to economic impacts on equestrian sports and horse breeding. Immunological and pathophysiological characteristics of severe equine asthma show important parallels with allergic and severe neutrophilic human asthma. Our study aimed at investigating reg...
Kuemmerle JM, Theiss F, Okoniewski MJ, Weber FA, Hemmi S, Mirsaidi A, Richards PJ, Cinelli P.Although several tendon-selective genes exist, they are also expressed in other musculoskeletal tissues. As cell and tissue engineering is reliant on specific molecular markers to discriminate between cell types, tendon-specific genes need to be identified. In order to accomplish this, we have used RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to compare gene expression between tendon, bone, cartilage and ligament from horses. We identified several tendon-selective gene markers, and established eyes absent homolog 2 () and a G-protein regulated inducer of neurite outgrowth 3 () as specific tendon markers using RT-...
Davis JL, Little D, Blikslager AT, Papich MG.Ussing chambers have been used to study the mucosal permeability of drugs in humans, rats and other species. This data can then be used to develop in vitro/in vivo correlations (IVIVC) for drugs based on the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS). Due to the poor oral bioavailability of many drugs in the horse, this method may be useful for screening drugs before development to determine if they warrant further study. Cephalexin (CPX), marbofloxacin (MAR), metronidazole (MTZ) and fluconazole (FCZ) were chosen for this study based on the wide range of physicochemical properties and bioava...
Almeida J, Conley AJ, Mathewson L, Ball BA.Sertoli cells are essential in development of a functional testis. During puberty, Sertoli cell maturation can be characterized by a number of markers, including anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and its receptor (AMHR2), androgen receptor (AR), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKN1B), and connexin 43 (Cx43). In the present study, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) were used to characterize changes in expression of AMH, AMHR2, AR, CDKN1B, and Cx43 in prepubertal, postpubertal, and adult equine testes. During puberty, AMH expression decrease...
