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. 2019 Feb 4;20(1):104.
doi: 10.1186/s12864-019-5484-9.

Exploring the genetics of trotting racing ability in horses using a unique Nordic horse model

Brandon D Velie  1   2 , Mette Lillie  3   4 , Kim Jäderkvist Fegraeus  5 , Maria K Rosengren  5 , Marina Solé  5 , Maja Wiklund  6 , Carl-Fredrik Ihler  7 , Eric Strand  7 , Gabriella Lindgren  5   8
Affiliations

Exploring the genetics of trotting racing ability in horses using a unique Nordic horse model

Brandon D Velie et al. BMC Genomics. .

Abstract

Background: Horses have been strongly selected for speed, strength, and endurance-exercise traits since the onset of domestication. As a result, highly specialized horse breeds have developed with many modern horse breeds often representing closed populations with high phenotypic and genetic uniformity. However, a great deal of variation still exists between breeds, making the horse particularly well suited for genetic studies of athleticism. To identify genomic regions associated with athleticism as it pertains to trotting racing ability in the horse, the current study applies a pooled sequence analysis approach using a unique Nordic horse model.

Results: Pooled sequence data from three Nordic horse populations were used for FST analysis. After strict filtering, FST analysis yielded 580 differentiated regions for trotting racing ability. Candidate regions on equine chromosomes 7 and 11 contained the largest number of SNPs (n = 214 and 147, respectively). GO analyses identified multiple genes related to intelligence, energy metabolism, and skeletal development as potential candidate genes. However, only one candidate region for trotting racing ability overlapped a known racing ability QTL.

Conclusions: Not unexpected for genomic investigations of complex traits, the current study identified hundreds of candidate regions contributing to trotting racing ability in the horse. Likely resulting from the cumulative effects of many variants across the genome, racing ability continues to demonstrate its polygenic nature with candidate regions implicating genes influencing both musculature and neurological development.

Keywords: Athleticism; Conformation; Genomic; Performance; Racehorse.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All experimental procedures and sample collection methods were approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments in Uppsala, Sweden [Number: C 121/14]. Samples used in the study were already available at either the Animal Genetics Laboratory at SLU in Uppsala, Sweden or the Department of Basic Sciences and Aquatic Medicine at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Oslo, Norway as they previously had been used for parentage testing. Permission to use the samples was granted from the Swedish Trotting Association and the Norwegian Trotting Association (the owners of the samples per the rules/guidelines of the industry).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors have the following interest: GL is a co-inventor on a granted patent concerning commercial testing of the DMRT3 mutation: A method to predict the pattern of locomotion in horses. PCT EP 12747875.8. European patent registration date: 2011-05-05, US patent registration date: 2011-08-03. There are no further patents, products in development, or marketed products to declare.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Breed classifications. Top panel = North Swedish Draught Horse; middle panel = Norwegian-Swedish Coldblooded trotter; bottom panel = Standardbred trotter. *Images used in the figure are privately owned and thus were not taken from previously published sources requiring written permission for use
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Locations of highly differentiated genomic regions across the horse chromosomes. *Ricard et al. 2017
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Molecular function summary information from the functional classification analysis of candidate genes in PANTHER. PANTHER molecular function classification: the function of the protein by itself or with directly interacting proteins at a biochemical level
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Biological process summary information from the functional classification analysis of candidate genes in PANTHER. PANTHER biological process classification: the function of the protein in the context of a larger network of proteins that interact to accomplish a process at the level of the cell or organism
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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