FREE SHIPPING over $40
OVER 10000 FIVE-STAR REVIEWS
5% OFF ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS
100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
Analyze Diet
0
PeerJ2018; 6; e4889; doi: 10.7717/peerj.4889

Genetic variability of Akhal-Teke horses bred in Italy.

Abstract: The Akhal-Teke horse (AKH) is native of the modern Turkmenistan area. It was introduced in Italy from 1991 to 2000 mainly as an endurance horse. This paper characterizes the genetic variability of the whole Italian AKH horse population and evaluates their inbreeding level by analyzing microsatellite markers and mitochondrial D-Loop sequences. Methods: Seventeen microsatellite marker loci were genotyped on 95 DNA samples from almost all the AKH horses bred in Italy in the last 20 years. Standard genetic variability measures (Ho, He, FIS) were compared against the same variables published on other eight AKH populations. In addition, 397 bp of mtDNA D-loop region were sequenced on a sub-group of 22 unrelated AKH out of the 95 sampled ones, and on 11 unrelated Arab horses. The haplotypes identified in the Italian population were aligned to sequences of AKH (56), Arab (five), Caspian Pony (13), Przewalskii (two) and Barb (15) horses available in GenBank. The Median Joining Network (MJN), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Neighbor-joining (NJ) tree were calculated on the total 126 sequences. Results: Nucleic markers showed a high degree of polymorphism (Ho = 0.642; He = 0.649) and a low inbreeding level (FIS = 0.016) in Italian horses, compared to other AKH populations (ranged from -0.103 AKH from Estonia to 0.114 AKH from Czech Republic). High variability was also recorded in the D-Loop region. 11 haplotypes were identified with haplotype diversity (hd), nucleotide diversity (π) and average number of nucleotide differences (k) of 0.938, 0.021 and 6.448, respectively. When all the 126 D-Loop sequences were compared, 51 haplotypes were found, and four were here found only in the Italian AKH horses. The 51 haplotypes were conformed to eight recognized mtDNA haplogroups (A, C, F, G, L, M, P and Q) and confirmed by MJN analysis, Italian horses being assigned to five haplogroups (A, C, G, L and M). Using a PCA approach to the same data, the total haplotypes were grouped into two clusters including A+C+M+P and G+F haplogroups, while L and Q haplogroups remained ungrouped. Finally, the NJ algorithm effectively discretizes only the L haplogroup. All the above data univocally indicate good genetic variability and accurate management of the Akhal-Teke population in Italy.
Get Full Text
Publication Date: 2018-09-06 PubMed ID: 30202639PubMed Central: PMC6129384DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4889Google 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.

The research study focuses on understanding the genetic variability of the Akhal-Teke horse population in Italy, which were primarily introduced as endurance horses between 1991-2000. The study evaluates the inbreeding level of these horses using microsatellite markers and mitochondrial D-Loop sequences and concludes that there is good genetic diversity and effective management of the Akhal-Teke horse population in Italy.

Methodology

  • The researchers genotyped seventeen microsatellite marker loci on 95 DNA samples from almost all the Akhal-Teke horses bred in Italy in the last 20 years.
  • Standard genetic variability measures were used and were compared against the same variables published on other eight Akhal-Teke populations.
  • 397 bp of mtDNA D-loop region were sequenced on a sub-group of 22 unrelated horses out of the 95 sampled ones, and on 11 unrelated Arab horses.
  • The haplotypes were aligned to sequences of Akhal-Teke, Arab, Caspian Pony, Przewalskii and Barb horses available in GenBank.
  • The Median Joining Network, Principal Component Analysis and Neighbor-joining tree were calculated.

Results

  • The nucleic markers showed a high degree of polymorphism and a low inbreeding level in Italian horses, compared to other Akhal-Teke populations.
  • High variability was also recorded in the D-Loop region, which is the non-coding region of the animal mitochondrial DNA.
  • Eleven haplotypes were identified from the Italian Akhal-Teke population.
  • When compared to the 126 D-Loop sequences, 51 haplotypes were found and four were only found in the Italian Akhal-Teke horses.
  • The haplotypes conformed to eight recognized mtDNA haplogroups, with the Italian horses being assigned to five haplogroups.
  • Two clusters were formed using a Principal Component Analysis approach; however, some haplogroups remained ungrouped.
  • Finally, the Neighbor-joining algorithm effectively separated just the L haplogroup.

These findings conclusively indicate that there is a good amount of genetic variability among the Akhal-Teke horse population in Italy, indicating effective population management and a low inbreeding level.

Cite This Article

APA
Cozzi MC, Strillacci MG, Valiati P, Rogliano E, Bagnato A, Longeri M. (2018). Genetic variability of Akhal-Teke horses bred in Italy. PeerJ, 6, e4889. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4889

Publication

PeerJ
ISSN: 2167-8359
NlmUniqueID: 101603425
Country: United States
Language: English
Volume: 6
Pages: e4889

Researcher Affiliations

Cozzi, Maria C
  • Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Strillacci, Maria G
  • Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Valiati, Paolo
  • Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Rogliano, Elisa
  • Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Bagnato, Alessandro
  • Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Longeri, Maria
  • Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

References

This article includes 46 references
  1. 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.. Proceeding of the National Academy Science of the United States of America 2012;109:2449–2454.
    doi: 10.1073/pnas.1111637109pmc: PMC3289334pubmed: 22308342google scholar: lookup
  2. Beja-Pereira Al, England PR, Ferrand N, Jordan S, Bakhiet AO, Abdalla MA, Mashkour M, Jordana J, Taberlet P, Luikart G. African origin of domestic donkey.. Science 2004;304:1781.
    doi: 10.1126/science.1096008pubmed: 15205528google scholar: lookup
  3. Bömcke E, Gengler N, Cothran EG. Genetic variability in the Skyros pony and its relationship with other Greek and foreign horse breeds.. Genetics and Molecular Biology 2011;34:68–76.
    doi: 10.1590/S1415-47572010005000113pmc: PMC3085377pubmed: 21637546google scholar: lookup
  4. Cieslak J, Wodas L, Borowska A, Cothran EG, Khanshour AM, Mackowski M. Characterization of the Polish Primitive Horse (Konik) maternal lines using mitochondrial D-loop sequence variation.. PeerJ 2017;5:e3714.
    doi: 10.7717/peerj.3714pmc: PMC5572418pubmed: 28852595google scholar: lookup
  5. 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;5:e15311.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015311pmc: PMC3004868pubmed: 21187961google scholar: lookup
  6. Cothran EG, Van Dyk E, Van der Merwe FJ. Genetic variation in the feral horses of the Namib Desert. Namibia.. Journal of the South African Veterinary Association 2001;72(1):18–22.
    pubmed: 11563711
  7. Cothran EG, Juras R, Macijauskiene V. Mitochondrial DNA D.loop sequence variation among 5 maternal lines of the Zemaitukai horse breed.. Genetics and Molecular Biology 2005;28(4):677–681.
    doi: 10.1590/S1415-47572005000500006google scholar: lookup
  8. Cozzi MC, Strillacci MG, Valiati P, Bighignoli B, Cancedda M, Zanotti M. Mitochondrial D-loop sequence variation among Italian horse breeds.. Genetics Selection Evolution 2004;36:663–672.
    doi: 10.1186/1297-9686-36-6-663pmc: PMC2697199pubmed: 15496286google scholar: lookup
  9. Cozzi MC, Valiati P, Cherchi R, Gorla E, Prinsen RT, Longeri M, Bagnato A, Strillacci MG. Mitochondrial DNA genetic diversity in six Italian donkey breeds (Equus asinus). Mitochondrial DNA Part A 2017;28:1–10.
    doi: 10.1080/24701394.2017.1292505pubmed: 28278690google scholar: lookup
  10. Elsner J, Hofreiter M, Schibler J, Schlumbaum A. Ancient mtDNA diversity reveals specific population development of wild horses in Switzerland after the Last Glacial Maximum.. PLOS ONE 2017;12:e0177458.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177458pmc: PMC5443500pubmed: 28542345google scholar: lookup
  11. Excoffier L, Lischer HEL. Arlequin suite ver3.5: a new series of programs to perform population genetics analyses under Linux and Windows.. Molecular Ecology Resources 2010;10:564–567.
    doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2010.02847.xpubmed: 21565059google scholar: lookup
  12. Farnir F, Coppieters W, Arranz JJ, Berzi P, Cambisano N, Grisart B, Karim L, Marcq F, Moreau L, Mni M, Nezer C, Simon P, Vanmanshoven P, Wagenaar D, Georges M. Extensive genome-wide linkage disequilibrium in cattle.. Genome Research 2000;10:220–227.
    doi: 10.1101/gr.10.2.220pubmed: 10673279google scholar: lookup
  13. Goudet J. FSTAT, a program to estimate and test gene diversities and fixation indices.. 2002.
  14. Hall TA. BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT.. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series 1999;41:95–98.
  15. Hammer Ø, Harper DAT, Ryan PD. PAST: Paleontological Statistics Software Package for Education and Data Analysis.. Palaeontologia Electronica 2001;4:1–9.
  16. Hristov P, Yordanov G, Ivanova A, Mitkov I, Sirakova D, Mehandzyiski I, Radoslavov G. Mitochondrial diversity in mountain horse population from the South-Eastern Europe.. Mitochondrial DNA a DNA Mapping Sequencing and Analaysis 2016;1:1–6.
    doi: 10.1080/24701394.2016.1186667pubmed: 27247184google scholar: lookup
  17. 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.. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2002;99:10905–10910.
    doi: 10.1073/pnas.152330099pmc: PMC125071pubmed: 12130666google scholar: lookup
  18. Jiskrová I, Vrtková I, Prausová M. Genetic diversity of populations of Akhal-Teke horses from the CzechRepublic, Russia, Estonia and Switzerland.. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis 2016;64:461–466.
    doi: 10.11118/actaun201664020461google scholar: lookup
  19. Kimura M. A simple method for estimating evolutionary rate of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences.. Journal of Molecular Evolution 1980;16:111–120.
    doi: 10.1007/BF01731581pubmed: 7463489google scholar: lookup
  20. Koban E, Denizci M, Aslan O, Aktoprakligil D, Aksu S, Bower M, Balcioglu BK, Ozdemir Bahadir A, Bilgin R, Erdag B, Bagis H, Arat S. High microsatellite and mitochondrial diversity in Anatolian native horse breeds shows Anatolia as a genetic conduit between Europe and Asia.. Animal Genetics 2012;43:401–409.
    doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2011.02285.xpubmed: 22497212google scholar: lookup
  21. Kumar S, Stecher G, Tamura K. MEGA7: molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets.. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2016;33:1870–1874.
    doi: 10.1093/molbev/msw054pmc: PMC8210823pubmed: 27004904google scholar: lookup
  22. Kusza S, Priskin K, Ivankovic A, Jedrzejewska B, Podgorski T, Jávor A, Mihók S. Genetic characterization and population bottleneck in the Hucul horse based on microsatellite and mitochondrial data.. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 2013;109:54–65.
    doi: 10.1111/bij.12023google scholar: lookup
  23. Leisson K, Alev K, Kaasik P, Jaakma Ü, Seene T. Myosin heavy chain pattern in the Akhal-Teke horses.. Animal 2011;5:658–662.
    doi: 10.1017/S1751731110002375pubmed: 22439988google scholar: lookup
  24. Librado P, Rozas J. DnaSP v5: a software for comprehensive analysis of DNA polymorphism data.. Bioinformatics 2009;25:1451–1452.
    doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp187pubmed: 19346325google scholar: lookup
  25. Librado P, Gamba C, Gaunitz C, Der Sarkissian C, Pruvost M, Albrechtsen A, Fages A, Khan N, Schubert M, Jagannathan V, Serres-Armero A, Kuderna LFK7, Povolotskaya IS, Seguin-Orlando A, Lepetz S, Neuditschko M, Thèves C, Alquraishi S, Alfarhan AH, Al-Rasheid K, Rieder S, Samashev Z, Francfort HP, Benecke N, Hofreiter M, Ludwig A, Keyser C, Marques-Bonet T, Ludes B, Crubézy E, Leeb T, Willerslev E, Orlando L. Ancient genomic changes associated with domestication of the horse.. Science 2017;356(6336):442–445.
    doi: 10.1126/science.aam5298pubmed: 28450643google scholar: lookup
  26. Lippold S, Matzke NJ, Reissmann M, Hofreiter M. Whole mitochondrial genome sequencing of domestic horses reveals incorporation of extensive wild horse diversity during domestication.. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011;11:328.
    doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-328pmc: PMC3247663pubmed: 22082251google scholar: lookup
  27. Luis C, Juras R, Oom MM, Cothran EG. Genetic diversity and relationships of Portuguese and other horse breeds based on protein and microsatellite loci variation.. Animal Genetics 2007;38:20–27.
    doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2006.01545.xpubmed: 17257184google scholar: lookup
  28. McGahern A, Bower MA, Edwards CJ, Brophy PO, Sulimova G, Zakharov I, Vizuete-Forster M, Levine M, Li S, MacHugh DE, Hill EW. Evidence for biogeographic patterning of mitochondrial DNA sequences in Eastern horse populations.. Animal Genetics 2006;37:494–497.
    doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2006.01495.xpubmed: 16978180google scholar: lookup
  29. McRae AF, Mcewan JC, Dodds KG, Wilson T, Crawford AM, Slate J. Linkage disequilibrium in domestic sheep.. Genetics 2002;160:1113–1122.
    pmc: PMC1462013pubmed: 11901127
  30. Miller JM, Poissant J, Malenfant RM, Hogg JT, Coltman DW. Temporal dynamics of linkage disequilibrium in two populations of bighorn sheep.. Ecology and Evolution 2015;5(16):3401–3412.
    doi: 10.1002/ece3.1612pmc: PMC4569035pubmed: 26380673google scholar: lookup
  31. Outram AK, Stear NA, Bendrey R, Olsen S, Kasparov A, Zaibert V, Thorpe N, Evershed RP. The earliest horse harnessing and milking.. Science 2009;323:1332–1335.
    doi: 10.1126/science.1168594pubmed: 19265018google scholar: lookup
  32. Petersen JL1, Mickelson JR, Cothran EG, Andersson LS, Axelsson J, Bailey E, Bannasch D, Binns MM, Borges AS, Brama P, Da Câmara Machado A, Distl O, Felicetti M, Fox-Clipsham L, Graves KT, Guérin G, Haase B, Hasegawa T, Hemmann K, Hill EW, Leeb T, Lindgren G, Lohi H, Lopes MS, McGivney BA, Mikko S, Orr N, Penedo MC, Piercy RJ, Raekallio M, Rieder S, Røed KH, Silvestrelli M, Swinburne J, Tozaki T, Vaudin M, Wade CM, McCue ME. Genetic diversity in the modern horse illustrated from Genome-Wide SNP data.. PLOS ONE 2013;8:e54997.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054997pmc: PMC3559798pubmed: 23383025google scholar: lookup
  33. Priskin K, Szabó K, Tömöry G, Bogácsi-Szabó E, Csányi B, Eördögh R, Downes CS, Raskó I. Mitochondrial sequence variation in ancient horses from the Carpathian Basin and possible modern relatives.. Genetica 2010;138:211–218.
    doi: 10.1007/s10709-009-9411-xpubmed: 19789983google scholar: lookup
  34. Prystupa JM, Hind P, Cothran EG, Plante Y. Maternal lineages in native Canadian equine populations and their relationship to the Nordic and Mountain and Moorland pony breeds.. The Journal of Heredity 2012;103:380–390.
    doi: 10.1093/jhered/ess003pubmed: 22504109google scholar: lookup
  35. Raymond M, Rousset F. GENEPOP (version 1.2): population genetics software for exact tests and ecumenicism.. The Journal of Heredity 1995;86:248–249.
    doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a111573google scholar: lookup
  36. Royo LJ, Alvarez I, Beja-Pereira A, Molina A, Fernández I, Jordana J, Gómez E, Gutiérrez JP, Goyache F. The origins of Iberian horses assessed via mitochondrial DNA.. The Journal of Heredity 2005;96:663–669.
    doi: 10.1093/jhered/esi116pubmed: 16251517google scholar: lookup
  37. Saitou N, Nei M. The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees.. Molecular Biology and Evolution 1987;4:406–425.
    pubmed: 3447015
  38. Swinburne JE, Boursnell M, Hill G, Pettitt L, Allen T, Chowdhary B, Hasegawa T, Kurosawa M, Leeb T, Mashima S, Mickelson JR, Raudsepp T, Tozaki T, Binns M. Single linkage group per chromosome genetic linkage map for the horse, based on two three-generation, full-sibling, crossbred horse reference families.. Genomics 2006;87(1):1–29.
    doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2005.09.001pubmed: 16314071google scholar: lookup
  39. Sziszkosz N, Mihók S, Jávor A, Kusza S. Genetic diversity of the Hungarian Gidran horse in two mitochondrial DNA markers.. PeerJ 2016;2(4):e1894.
    pmc: PMC4860319pubmed: 27168959
  40. Szontagh B, Bán I, Bodó E, Cothran G, Hecker W, Józsa CS, Á Major. Genetic diversity of the Akhal-Teke horse breed in Turkmenistan based on microsatellite analysis.. In: Bodó I, Alderson L, Langlois B, editors. Conservation genetics of endangered horse breeds. EAAP publication N 116. Wageningen Academic Publishers; Wageningen: 2005. pp. 123–129.
  41. Vilà C, Leonard JA, Gotherstrom A, Marklund S, Sandberg K, Liden K, Wayne RK, Ellegren H. Widespread origins of domestic horse lineages.. Science 2001;291:474–477.
    doi: 10.1126/science.291.5503.474pubmed: 11161199google scholar: lookup
  42. Warmuth V, Eriksson A, Bower MA, Barker G, Barrett E, Hanks BK, Li S, Lomitashvili D, Ochir-Goryaeva M, Sizonov GV, Soyonov V, Manica A. Reconstructing the origin and spread of horse domestication in the Eurasian steppe.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2012;22:8202–8206.
    pmc: PMC3361400pubmed: 22566639
  43. Warmuth V, Eriksson A, Bower MA, Cañon J, Cothran EG, Distl O, Glowatzki-Mullis ML, Hunt H, Luís C, Do Mar Oom M, Yupanqui IT, Ząbek T, Manica A. European domestic horses originated in two holocene refugia.. PLOS ONE 2011;6:e18194.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018194pmc: PMC3068172pubmed: 21479181google scholar: lookup
  44. Xu X, Arnason U. The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the horse Equus caballus: extensive heteroplasmy of the control region.. Gene 1994;148:657–662.
    pubmed: 7958969
  45. Yeh FC, Yang R, Boyle TJB. POPGENE: Microsoft Window-based freeware for population genetic analysis. Version 1.31. 1997.
  46. Zhang T, Lu H, Chen C, Jiang H, Wu S. Genetic Diversity of mtDNA D-loop and maternal origin of three chinese native horse breeds.. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 2012;25(7):921–926.
    doi: 10.5713/ajas.2011.11483pmc: PMC4092969pubmed: 25049645google scholar: lookup

Citations

This article has been cited 6 times.
  1. 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
  2. Zhu S, Zhang N, Zhang J, Shao X, Guo Y, Cai D. Ancient Mitochondrial Genomes Provide New Clues in the History of the Akhal-Teke Horse in China. Genes (Basel) 2024 Jun 15;15(6).
    doi: 10.3390/genes15060790pubmed: 38927726google scholar: lookup
  3. Khaledi KA, Mirshahi A, Sardari K, Azizzadeh M, Ghasemi S. Radiographic assessment of normal parameters of forelimb distal phalanx in Turkmen horses. Vet Res Forum 2024;15(1):43-47.
    doi: 10.30466/vrf.2023.562962.3653pubmed: 38464607google scholar: lookup
  4. Kang Z, Shi J, Liu T, Zhang Y, Zhang Q, Liu Z, Wang J, Cheng S. Genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism data and mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 nucleotide sequence reveal the origin of the Akhal-Teke horse. Anim Biosci 2023 Oct;36(10):1499-1507.
    doi: 10.5713/ab.23.0044pubmed: 37170508google scholar: lookup
  5. Cardinali I, Giontella A, Tommasi A, Silvestrelli M, Lancioni H. Unlocking Horse Y Chromosome Diversity. Genes (Basel) 2022 Dec 2;13(12).
    doi: 10.3390/genes13122272pubmed: 36553539google scholar: lookup
  6. Cozzi MC, Valiati P, Longeri M, Ferreira C, Abreu Ferreira S. Genetic Variability Trend of Lusitano Horse Breed Reared in Italy. Animals (Basel) 2022 Jan 1;12(1).
    doi: 10.3390/ani12010098pubmed: 35011204google scholar: lookup
Subscribe to our newsletter
Join 99,850 horse owners like you who receive our email updates on horse health and nutrition.