Potential role of maternal lineage in the thoroughbred breeding strategy.
Abstract: Many studies have focused on identifying the genes or single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the athletic ability of thoroughbreds, but few have considered differences in maternal and paternal heritability of athletic ability. Herein, we report on our association study of career race performances of 675 Australian thoroughbreds with their pedigrees. Racing performance data (prize money per start) were collected from the Bloodhound database. The performance of all horses was categorised as either poor or elite athletic achievement. Then, 675 foals were divided by their parents' performance (elite or poor) into four groups: (1) elite dams and elite sires; (2) elite dams and poor sires; (3) poor dams and elite sires; and (4) poor dams and poor sires. The performance of foals was then compared between the four groups. The results show that the heritability of race performance between dams and foals (r = 0.141, P < 0.001) is much higher than that between sires and foals (r = 0.035, P = 0.366), and that this difference is statistically significant (P < 0.05). We also examined the effect of the child-bearing age of dams and sires on the ratio of elite foals. We found a strong correlation between the number of elite foals and dams' child-bearing age (r = -0.105, P < 0.001), with the ratio of elite offspring reaching a high level between a child-bearing age of 8 and 11 years (χ2 = 14.31, d.f. = 1, P < 0.001). These findings suggest that the maternal line may play an important role in the selective breeding of athletic performance in thoroughbreds.
Publication Date: 2015-05-05 PubMed ID: 25940872DOI: 10.1071/RD15063Google Scholar: Lookup
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- Journal Article
Summary
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This research investigates the heritable factors that contribute to the athletic ability of thoroughbred horses, focusing specifically on the role of the maternal lineage. The study found evidence to suggest that the maternal line has a significantly larger effect on a horse’s racing performance than the paternal line.
Research Methodology
- For this study, data was analyzed from 675 Australia thoroughbreds and their career race performances. The measure of performance used was prize money per start, gathered from the Bloodhound database.
- The performance of each horse was divided into two categories: poor and elite athletic achievement.
- The 675 foals were further separated into four groups based on their parents’ performance. These groupings were: elite dams and elite sires; elite dams and poor sires; poor dams and elite sires; and poor dams and poor sires.
- The researchers compared the performance of foals between these four groupings.
Research Findings
- Results showed a notable difference in heritability of performance from dams (mothers) to foals versus that from sires (fathers) to foals. The study found that race performance has a much higher heritability from dams to foals (r = 0.141) compared to sires to foals (r = 0.035).
- This difference was found to be statistically significant, suggesting that the athletic ability of thoroughbreds is more likely to be inherited from the maternal lineage.
- Additionally, the researchers examined the impact of the dams’ and sires’ child-bearing age on the ratio of elite foals. They discovered a significant correlation between the number of elite offspring and the dams’ child-bearing age.
- Findings showed that the ratio of elite offspring reached a peak when dams were between 8 and 11 years of age.
Conclusion and Implications
- The findings of this study suggest that the maternal lineage plays an essential role in the breeding of high-performance thoroughbreds.
- This highlights the potential importance of maternal lineage in thoroughbred breeding strategies, which present breeders with new considerations for optimising the athletic performance of their horses.
Cite This Article
APA
Lin X, Zhou S, Wen L, Davie A, Yao X, Liu W, Zhang Y.
(2015).
Potential role of maternal lineage in the thoroughbred breeding strategy.
Reprod Fertil Dev.
https://doi.org/10.1071/RD15063 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
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