Omneity® Pellets
All-In-One Vitamin & Mineral Pellet
The cosmopolitan maternal heritage of the Thoroughbred racehorse breed shows a significant contribution from British and Irish native mares.
Abstract: The paternal origins of Thoroughbred racehorses trace back to a handful of Middle Eastern stallions, imported to the British Isles during the seventeenth century. Yet, few details of the foundation mares were recorded, in many cases not even their names (several different maternal lineages trace back to 'A Royal Mare'). This has fuelled intense speculation over their origins. We examined mitochondrial DNA from 1929 horses to determine the origin of Thoroughbred foundation mares. There is no evidence to support exclusive Arab maternal origins as some historical records have suggested, or a significant importation of Oriental mares (the term used in historic records to refer to Middle East and western Asian breeds including Arab, Akhal-Teke, Barb and Caspian). Instead, we show that Thoroughbred foundation mares had a cosmopolitan European heritage with a far greater contribution from British and Irish Native mares than previously recognized.
Publication Date: 2010-10-06 PubMed ID: 20926431PubMed Central: PMC3061175DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0800Google 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.
- Journal Article
- Research Support
- Non-U.S. Gov't
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 article investigates the maternal origins of Thoroughbred racehorses, indicating a significant contribution from British and Irish native mares, contrary to common assumptions of exclusive Middle Eastern ancestry.
Study Approach
- The researchers studied the mitochondrial DNA from 1929 horses to trace back the origins of Thoroughbred foundation mares.
- Through this genetic study, they aimed at addressing the lack of historic records about the origins of Thoroughbred mares, particularly since most of these records did not even contain the mares’ names.
Speculations Debunked
- The study found no evidence to support historical claims suggesting exclusive Arab maternal origins for Thoroughbreds, a presumption likely influenced by the known Middle Eastern origin of their paternal lineage.
- Likewise, the study could not confirm significant importation of Oriental mares, a term used historically to refer to breeds from the Middle East and Western Asia, including Arab, Akhal-Teke, Barb, and Caspian horses.
New Insights
- Opposite to initial assumptions, the research revealed that Thoroughbred foundation mares instead had a cosmopolitan European heritage.
- Particularly, a greater contribution from British and Irish Native mares to the Thoroughbred lineage was identified, a fact previously unrecognized by existing recorded histories of the breed’s ancestry.
Cite This Article
APA
Bower MA, Campana MG, Whitten M, Edwards CJ, Jones H, Barrett E, Cassidy R, Nisbet RE, Hill EW, Howe CJ, Binns M.
(2010).
The cosmopolitan maternal heritage of the Thoroughbred racehorse breed shows a significant contribution from British and Irish native mares.
Biol Lett, 7(2), 316-320.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0800 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. mab1004@cam.ac.uk
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Breeding
- DNA, Mitochondrial / chemistry
- Female
- Gene Frequency
- Genetic Variation
- Haplotypes
- Horses / genetics
- Ireland
- Male
- Middle East
- Pedigree
- United Kingdom
References
This article includes 24 references
- Cassidy R. The sport of kings: kinship, class and thoroughbred breeding in Newmarket. .
- Hewitt A. Sire lines. .
- Montgomery E S. The thoroughbred. .
- Prior C M. Early records of the Thoroughbred horse. .
- Rasmussen L, Faversham R. Inbreeding to superior females: using the Rasmussen Factor to produce better racehorses. .
- Harrison SP, Turrion-Gomez JL. Mitochondrial DNA: an important female contribution to thoroughbred racehorse performance.. Mitochondrion 2006 Apr;6(2):53-63.
- Wentworth L. Thoroughbred racing stock. .
- Wallace J. The horse of America in his derivation, history and development. .
- Landry D. Noble brutes: how eastern horses transformed English culture. .
- Hill EW, Bradley DG, Al-Barody M, Ertugrul O, Splan RK, Zakharov I, Cunningham EP. History and integrity of thoroughbred dam lines revealed in equine mtDNA variation.. Anim Genet 2002 Aug;33(4):287-94.
- 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.
- 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.. Anim Genet 2006 Oct;37(5):494-7.
- Lei CZ, Su R, Bower MA, Edwards CJ, Wang XB, Weining S, Liu L, Xie WM, Li F, Liu RY, Zhang YS, Zhang CM, Chen H. Multiple maternal origins of native modern and ancient horse populations in China.. Anim Genet 2009 Dec;40(6):933-44.
- Bandelt HJ, Forster P, Röhl A. Median-joining networks for inferring intraspecific phylogenies.. Mol Biol Evol 1999 Jan;16(1):37-48.
- Larson G, Dobney K, Albarella U, Fang M, Matisoo-Smith E, Robins J, Lowden S, Finlayson H, Brand T, Willerslev E, Rowley-Conwy P, Andersson L, Cooper A. Worldwide phylogeography of wild boar reveals multiple centers of pig domestication.. Science 2005 Mar 11;307(5715):1618-21.
- Edwards CJ, Bollongino R, Scheu A, Chamberlain A, Tresset A, Vigne JD, Baird JF, Larson G, Ho SY, Heupink TH, Shapiro B, Freeman AR, Thomas MG, Arbogast RM, Arndt B, Bartosiewicz L, Benecke N, Budja M, Chaix L, Choyke AM, Coqueugniot E, Döhle HJ, Göldner H, Hartz S, Helmer D, Herzig B, Hongo H, Mashkour M, Ozdogan M, Pucher E, Roth G, Schade-Lindig S, Schmölcke U, Schulting RJ, Stephan E, Uerpmann HP, Vörös I, Voytek B, Bradley DG, Burger J. Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs.. Proc Biol Sci 2007 Jun 7;274(1616):1377-85.
- Excoffier L, Smouse PE, Quattro JM. Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: application to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data.. Genetics 1992 Jun;131(2):479-91.
- 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.
- Jombart T. adegenet: a R package for the multivariate analysis of genetic markers.. Bioinformatics 2008 Jun 1;24(11):1403-5.
- Tamura K, Dudley J, Nei M, Kumar S. MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0.. Mol Biol Evol 2007 Aug;24(8):1596-9.
- Debevec EM, Gates RB, Masuda M, Pella J, Reynolds J, Seeb LW. SPAM (version 3.2): statistics program for analyzing mixtures.. J Hered 2000 Nov-Dec;91(6):509-10.
- Park M, Lee J W, Kim C. Correspondence analysis approach for finding allele associations in population genetic study. Comput. Statist. Data Anal. 51, 3145–3155.
- Hendricks B L. International encyclopedia of horse breeds. .
- Luís C, Bastos-Silveira C, Cothran EG, Oom Mdo M. Iberian origins of New World horse breeds.. J Hered 2006 Mar-Apr;97(2):107-13.
Citations
This article has been cited 24 times.Use Nutrition Calculator
Check if your horse's diet meets their nutrition requirements with our easy-to-use tool Check your horse's diet with our easy-to-use tool
Talk to a Nutritionist
Discuss your horse's feeding plan with our experts over a free phone consultation Discuss your horse's diet over a phone consultation
Submit Diet Evaluation
Get a customized feeding plan for your horse formulated by our equine nutritionists Get a custom feeding plan formulated by our nutritionists
