Biochemical polymorphism in relation to performance in horses.
Abstract: Investigations on relationships between biochemical polymorphism and variation in quantitative traits are of interest from the perspectives of both theoretical quantitative genetics and practical animal breeding. This subject was studied by using racing performance records of more than 25,000 horses of the Swedish Trotter breed born in the period 1970-1979. For all horses data on six blood group and nine electrophoretic loci were available. Two different performance traits were investigated. A racing performance index value was calculated for all individuals which had started in at least five races. Horses which had not started at all or less than five times were pooled in an unstarted class and the proportion of started horses was analysed as an all-or-none trait. The relationships between the marker genes and these two performance traits were analysed statistically by using linear models. Analysis within sires revealed a very highly significant association between variation at the serum esterase locus (Es) and the proportion of started horses. In addition, four weakly significant associations were found. A striking feature of the highly significant association involving the esterase locus was that the effect of different alleles showed a good fit to an additive genetic model as the value of each heterozygous type was intermediate to the two corresponding homozygotes. In addition to the association tests, the possibility of genetic linkage between marker genes and genes affecting performance was tested as well as the influence on performance of heterozygosity at marker loci. No significant relationships were revealed in these latter tests.
Publication Date: 1987-01-01 PubMed ID: 24241004DOI: 10.1007/BF00262510Google Scholar: Lookup
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- Journal Article
Summary
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The research studied the relationship between biochemical variations and racing performance in more than 25,000 Swedish Trotter horses born between 1970 and 1979. The researchers found a strong correlation between variations at the serum esterase gene and the proportion of horses that started races, suggesting an additive genetic model where differing alleles have intermediate effects on performance.
Research Context and Methodology
- The research focussed on a subject of interest from both a theoretical genetics and practical animal breeding standpoint, specifically how biochemical polymorphism (genetic variations) might be linked to particular traits in horses.
- Two performance traits were investigated in this study on Swedish Trotter horses born between 1970-1979, based on their racing records: a racing performance index value (for horses who had started at least five races), and a metric labelled as an all-or-none trait (representing the proportion of started horses against those that never started or started less than five times).
- The researchers leveraged data on six blood groups and nine electrophoretic loci, relating them to these performance traits using statistical linear models.
Major Findings
- The researchers found a high correlation between variation at the serum esterase locus (Es) and the proportion of horses that started races. This significant finding essentially means that the differences at this particular gene can influence a horse’s performance, specifically its likelihood of starting races.
- Furthermore, this correlation demonstrated an additive genetic model. This is significant as it suggests that different versions (alleles) of the gene have an intermediate effect—meaning the impact of having two different versions of the gene is intermediate to having two of the same version.
- Four additional correlations were found, although these were deemed weakly significant.
Additional Tests and Findings
- The researchers also tested for whether there could be genetic linkage – a situation when specific genes or genetic markers are inherited together more often than would be expected by chance – between the identified marker genes and genes affecting performance.
- They also checked the impact of heterozygosity at marker loci on performance. Heterozygosity refers to a state of having two different alleles of a particular gene.
- However, neither of these tests revealed any significant relationships.
Cite This Article
APA
Andersson L, Arnason T, Sandberg K.
(1987).
Biochemical polymorphism in relation to performance in horses.
Theor Appl Genet, 73(3), 419-427.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00262510 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7023, S-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden.
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