FREE SHIPPING over $40
OVER 9000 FIVE-STAR REVIEWS
5% OFF ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS
100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
Analyze Diet
0
Home / Equine Research Bank / Animals (Basel) / Genetic Diversity and Maternal Phylogenetic Relationships am...
Animals : an open access journal from MDPI2023; 13(12); 2021; doi: 10.3390/ani13122021

Genetic Diversity and Maternal Phylogenetic Relationships among Populations and Strains of Arabian Show Horses.

Abstract: Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships within the Arabian show horse populations are of particular interest to breeders worldwide. Using the complete mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence (916 pb), this study aimed (i) to understand the genetic relationship between three populations, the Desert-Bred (DB), a subset of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain (BAH), the Straight Egyptian (EG) and the Polish bloodline (PL), and (ii) to assess the accuracy of the traditional strain classification system based on maternal lines, as stated by the Bedouin culture. To that end, we collected 211 hair samples from stud farms renowned for breeding Arabian show horses from Nejd KSA, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, UAE, and Poland. The phylogenetic and network analyses of the whole mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence highlighted a great genetic diversity among the Arabian horse populations, in which about 75% of variance was assigned to populations and 25% to strains. The discriminant analysis of principal components illustrated a relative distinction between those populations. A clear subdivision between traditional strains was found in PL, in contrast to the situation of DB and EG populations. However, several Polish horse individuals could not be traced back to the Bedouin tribes by historical documentation and were shown to differ genetically from other studied Bedouin strains, hence motivating extended investigations.
Get Full Text
Publication Date: 2023-06-17 PubMed ID: 37370531PubMed Central: PMC10295422DOI: 10.3390/ani13122021Google Scholar: Lookup
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
LinkedInCopy
  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

This research explores genetic diversity and maternal lineage relationships among populations and strains of Arabian show horses from select regions. The findings reveal that about 75% of genetic variance is assigned to different geographic populations and 25% is linked to specific horse strains. Interestingly, the Polish line of horses showed a clear distinction from the Desert-Bred and Straight Egyptian lines.

Research Background

  • This study concerns the Arabian show horse, a breed prized and globally renowned for its beauty, endurance, and athleticism.
  • The researchers are particularly interested in understanding the genetic diversity within this breed and the maternal lineage connections among different populations and strains.
  • To illuminate these relationships, they study the complete mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence from each horse, which provides insights into the maternal lineage due to its direct maternal inheritance.

Aims and Methodology

  • The researchers propose two primary objectives: (i) to explore the genetic relationships between three Arabian horse populations, namely, the Desert-Bred from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain; the Straight Egyptian; and the Polish bloodline, and (ii) to assess the accuracy of the traditional strain classification system based on maternal lines, as is accepted by Bedouin culture.
  • To help achieve these aims, the researchers collected hair samples from 211 horses at stud farms known for breeding Arabian show horses in the Nejd region of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, UAE, and Poland.

Findings and Interpretations

  • The researchers found a significant genetic diversity among Arabian horse populations based on the mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence analysis.
  • About 75% of this genetic variance could be ascribed to differences among the geographic populations, indicating a high degree of genetic differentiation between these groups of horses.
  • The remaining 25% of variance could be linked to different strains within these geographic populations, suggesting a lower degree of genetic differentiation at the strain level.
  • The data indicates a relative distinction between the analysed populations, which may be due to various factors like geographical separation, breeding practices, or founder effects.
  • Intriguingly, the Polish horses displayed a clear genetic distinction from the Desert-Bred and Straight Egyptian populations, implying different maternal lineages.
  • However, some Polish horses could not be historically traced back to Bedouin tribes and were genetically different from other Bedouin strains, necessitating further research.

Cite This Article

APA
Machmoum M, Badaoui B, Petit D, Germot A, El Alaoui MA, Boujenane I, Piro M. (2023). Genetic Diversity and Maternal Phylogenetic Relationships among Populations and Strains of Arabian Show Horses. Animals (Basel), 13(12), 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13122021

Publication

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
ISSN: 2076-2615
NlmUniqueID: 101635614
Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Volume: 13
Issue: 12
PII: 2021

Researcher Affiliations

Machmoum, Mohamed
  • Veterinary Genetic Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Surgery, and Reproduction, Institut Agronomique Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat 10101, Morocco.
Badaoui, Bouabid
  • Biodiversity, Ecology and Genome Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat 15062, Morocco.
  • African Sustainable Agriculture Research Institute (ASARI), Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), Laâyoune 70000, Morocco.
Petit, Daniel
  • LABCiS, University of Limoges, UR 22722, F-87000 Limoges, France.
Germot, Agnès
  • LABCiS, University of Limoges, UR 22722, F-87000 Limoges, France.
El Alaoui, Moulay Abdelaziz
  • Superior School of Technology, EST-Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra 14000, Morocco.
Boujenane, Ismaïl
  • Department of Animal Production and Biotechnology, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat 10101, Morocco.
Piro, Mohammed
  • Veterinary Genetic Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Surgery, and Reproduction, Institut Agronomique Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat 10101, Morocco.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

This article includes 39 references
  1. Nagel H. The Arabian Horse: Nature’s Creation and the Art of Breeding. 1st ed. Nawal Media; Spoleto, Italy: 2013.
  2. Qurachi A. Arab Horse Traits Law: An Original Study between Abu Ubaidah and Al-Asma’i. Shabanat Press; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 2012.
  3. Forbis J, Gulsan S. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript and Horsemen of Arabian and Egypt during the Time of Abbas Pasha 1800–1860. Ansata Publication; Mena, AR, USA: 1993.
  4. Al-Dahdah E. The State of Arabian Breeding in its Area of Origin. Volume 2 Al Khaima, the Institute’s Magazine; New York, NY, USA: 2005.
  5. Forbis J. The Classic Arabian Horse. WW Norton & Company; New York, NY, USA: 1976.
  6. Machmoum M, Mezrour L, Boujenane I, Piro M. Morphologie comparative des chevaux arabes de lignées égyptienne, polonaise et Desert Breed. Rev. Marocaine Sci. Agron. Vét. 2019;7:58–166.
  7. Cosgrove EJ, Sadeghi R, Schlamp F, Holl HM, Moradi-Shahrbabak M, Miraei-Ashtiani SR, Abdalla S, Shykind B, Troedsson M, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Prabhu A, Bucca S, Bugno-Poniewierska M, Wallner B, Malek J, Miller DC, Clark AG, Antczak DF, Brooks SA. Genome Diversity and the Origin of the Arabian Horse.. Sci Rep 2020 Jun 16;10(1):9702.
    doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-66232-1pmc: PMC7298027pubmed: 32546689google scholar: lookup
  8. Skorkowski E. Polish Genealogical Tables of Pure-Bred Arab Horse. Państwowe Wydawnictwo Rolnicze i Leśne; Krakow, Poland: 1960.
  9. Głazewska I, Jezierski T. Pedigree analysis of Polish Arabian horses based on founder contribution. Livest. Prod. Sci. 2004;90:293–298.
    doi: 10.1016/j.livprodsci.2004.08.002google scholar: lookup
  10. Machmoum M, Boujenane I, Azelhak R, Badaoui B, Petit D, Piro M. Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Arabian Horse Populations Using Microsatellite Markers.. J Equine Vet Sci 2020 Oct;93:103200.
    doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103200pubmed: 32972687google scholar: lookup
  11. Khanshour A, Conant E, Juras R, Cothran EG. Microsatellite analysis of genetic diversity and population structure of Arabian horse populations.. J Hered 2013 May-Jun;104(3):386-98.
    doi: 10.1093/jhered/est003pubmed: 23450090google scholar: lookup
  12. Khanshour AM, Cothran EG. Maternal phylogenetic relationships and genetic variation among Arabian horse populations using whole mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequencing.. BMC Genet 2013 Sep 13;14:83.
    doi: 10.1186/1471-2156-14-83pmc: PMC3847362pubmed: 24034565google scholar: lookup
  13. Almarzook S, Reissmann M, Arends D, Brockmann GA. Genetic diversity of Syrian Arabian horses.. Anim Genet 2017 Aug;48(4):486-489.
    doi: 10.1111/age.12568pubmed: 28568646google scholar: lookup
  14. Sadeghi R, Moradi-Shahrbabak M, Miraei Ashtiani SR, Schlamp F, Cosgrove EJ, Antczak DF. Genetic Diversity of Persian Arabian Horses and Their Relationship to Other Native Iranian Horse Breeds.. J Hered 2019 Mar 5;110(2):173-182.
    doi: 10.1093/jhered/esy061pubmed: 30590570google scholar: lookup
  15. Kumar S, Stecher G, Li M, Knyaz C, Tamura K. MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across Computing Platforms.. Mol Biol Evol 2018 Jun 1;35(6):1547-1549.
    doi: 10.1093/molbev/msy096pmc: PMC5967553pubmed: 29722887google scholar: lookup
  16. Xu X, Gullberg A, Arnason U. The complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the donkey and mtDNA comparisons among four closely related mammalian species-pairs.. J Mol Evol 1996 Nov;43(5):438-46.
    doi: 10.1007/BF02337515pubmed: 8875857google scholar: lookup
  17. Librado P, Rozas J. DnaSP v5: a software for comprehensive analysis of DNA polymorphism data.. Bioinformatics 2009 Jun 1;25(11):1451-2.
    doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp187pubmed: 19346325google scholar: lookup
  18. Fu YX, Li WH. Statistical tests of neutrality of mutations.. Genetics 1993 Mar;133(3):693-709.
    doi: 10.1093/genetics/133.3.693pmc: PMC1205353pubmed: 8454210google scholar: lookup
  19. Fu YX. Statistical tests of neutrality of mutations against population growth, hitchhiking and background selection.. Genetics 1997 Oct;147(2):915-25.
    doi: 10.1093/genetics/147.2.915pmc: PMC1208208pubmed: 9335623google scholar: lookup
  20. Tajima F. Statistical method for testing the neutral mutation hypothesis by DNA polymorphism.. Genetics 1989 Nov;123(3):585-95.
    doi: 10.1093/genetics/123.3.585pmc: PMC1203831pubmed: 2513255google scholar: lookup
  21. Excoffier L, Laval G, Schneider S. Arlequin (version 3.0): an integrated software package for population genetics data analysis.. Evol Bioinform Online 2007 Feb 23;1:47-50.
    doi: 10.1177/117693430500100003pmc: PMC2658868pubmed: 19325852google scholar: lookup
  22. Hartl D.L., Clark A.G., Clark A.G.. Principles of Population Genetics. 3rd ed. Sinauer Associates; Sunderland, MA, USA: 1997.
  23. Wright S. Evolution and the Genetics of Populations. Variability within and among Natural Populations. Chicago University Press; Chicago, IL, USA: 1978.
  24. Achilli A, Olivieri A, Soares P, Lancioni H, Hooshiar Kashani B, Perego UA, Nergadze SG, Carossa V, Santagostino M, Capomaccio S, Felicetti M, Al-Achkar W, Penedo MC, Verini-Supplizi A, Houshmand M, Woodward SR, Semino O, Silvestrelli M, Giulotto E, Pereira L, Bandelt HJ, Torroni A. Mitochondrial genomes from modern horses reveal the major haplogroups that underwent domestication.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012 Feb 14;109(7):2449-54.
    doi: 10.1073/pnas.1111637109pmc: PMC3289334pubmed: 22308342google scholar: lookup
  25. Vilà C, Leonard JA, Gotherstrom A, Marklund S, Sandberg K, Liden K, Wayne RK, Ellegren H. Widespread origins of domestic horse lineages.. Science 2001 Jan 19;291(5503):474-7.
    doi: 10.1126/science.291.5503.474pubmed: 11161199google scholar: lookup
  26. Hammer Ø, Harper D.A., Ryan P.D. PAST: PAleontological STatistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontol. Electron. 2001;4:9.
  27. Jombart T, Devillard S, Balloux F. Discriminant analysis of principal components: a new method for the analysis of genetically structured populations.. BMC Genet 2010 Oct 15;11:94.
    doi: 10.1186/1471-2156-11-94pmc: PMC2973851pubmed: 20950446google scholar: lookup
  28. Hudson W. Whole-loop mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence variability in Egyptian Arabian equine matrilines.. PLoS One 2017;12(8):e0184309.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184309pmc: PMC5578668pubmed: 28859174google scholar: lookup
  29. Almarzook S, Reissmann M, Brockmann GA. Diversity of mitochondrial DNA in three Arabian horse strains.. J Appl Genet 2017 May;58(2):273-276.
    doi: 10.1007/s13353-016-0384-zpubmed: 27966062google scholar: lookup
  30. Głazewska I, Wysocka A, Gralak B, Sell J. A new view on dam lines in Polish Arabian horses based on mtDNA analysis.. Genet Sel Evol 2007 Sep-Oct;39(5):609-19.
    doi: 10.1186/1297-9686-39-5-609pmc: PMC2682809pubmed: 17897600google scholar: lookup
  31. Guastella AM, Zuccaro A, Criscione A, Marletta D, Bordonaro S. Genetic analysis of Sicilian autochthonous horse breeds using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers.. J Hered 2011 Nov-Dec;102(6):753-8.
    doi: 10.1093/jhered/esr091pubmed: 21914666google scholar: lookup
  32. Bowling AT, Del Valle A, Bowling M. A pedigree-based study of mitochondrial D-loop DNA sequence variation among Arabian horses.. Anim Genet 2000 Feb;31(1):1-7.
    doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2052.2000.00558.xpubmed: 10690354google scholar: lookup
  33. Jansen T, Forster P, Levine MA, Oelke H, Hurles M, Renfrew C, Weber J, Olek K. Mitochondrial DNA and the origins of the domestic horse.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2002 Aug 6;99(16):10905-10.
    doi: 10.1073/pnas.152330099pmc: PMC125071pubmed: 12130666google scholar: lookup
  34. Aberle KS, Hamann H, Drögemüller C, Distl O. Phylogenetic relationships of German heavy draught horse breeds inferred from mitochondrial DNA D-loop variation.. J Anim Breed Genet 2007 Apr;124(2):94-100.
    doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0388.2007.00636.xpubmed: 17488360google scholar: lookup
  35. Cieslak M, Pruvost M, Benecke N, Hofreiter M, Morales A, Reissmann M, Ludwig A. Origin and history of mitochondrial DNA lineages in domestic horses.. PLoS One 2010 Dec 20;5(12):e15311.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015311pmc: PMC3004868pubmed: 21187961google scholar: lookup
  36. Zaher A. Arabian Horse Breeding and the Arabians of America. 2nd ed. Cairo University Press; Cairo, Egypt: 1961.
  37. Lizet B. Le cheval arabe du Nejd et le système des races orientales dans le manuscrit de Wenceslas Severyn Rzewuski. Anthropozoologica 2004;39:79–97.
  38. Remer V, Bozlak E, Felkel S, Radovic L, Rigler D, Grilz-Seger G, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Bugno-Poniewierska M, Brooks S, Miller DC, Antczak DF, Sadeghi R, Cothran G, Juras R, Khanshour AM, Rieder S, Penedo MC, Waiditschka G, Kalinkova L, Kalashnikov VV, Zaitsev AM, Almarzook S, Reißmann M, Brockmann GA, Brem G, Wallner B. Y-Chromosomal Insights into Breeding History and Sire Line Genealogies of Arabian Horses.. Genes (Basel) 2022 Jan 26;13(2).
    doi: 10.3390/genes13020229pmc: PMC8871751pubmed: 35205275google scholar: lookup
  39. Raswan C.R., Wenzler G., Seydel H. Der Araber und Sein Pferd. Konrad Wittwer Verlages; Stuttgart, Germany: 1981.

Citations

This article has been cited 2 times.
  1. Saldaña CL, Justo S, Murga L, Vásquez HV, Maicelo JL, Arbizu CI, Bardales W. Mitochondrial genome assembly of the Peruvian Paso horse through PacBio long-read sequencing. Sci Rep 2025 Dec 21;16(1):85.
    doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-29107-xpubmed: 41423464google scholar: lookup
  2. Agbani A, Aminou O, Machmoum M, Germot A, Badaoui B, Petit D, Piro M. A Systematic Literature Review of Mitochondrial DNA Analysis for Horse Genetic Diversity. Animals (Basel) 2025 Mar 20;15(6).
    doi: 10.3390/ani15060885pubmed: 40150414google scholar: lookup
Subscribe to our newsletter
Join 99,001 horse owners like you who receive our email updates on horse health and nutrition.