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. 2023 Dec 12;13(24):3829.
doi: 10.3390/ani13243829.

DMRT3 Allele Frequencies in Batida- and Picada-Gaited Donkeys and Mules in Brazil

Mariana Herman  1 , Amanda Manara Caceres  1 , Ana Luísa H Albuquerque  1 , Raíssa O Leite  1 , César Erineudo T Araújo  2 , Diego José Z Delfiol  3 , Rogério A Curi  4 , Alexandre S Borges  1 , José P Oliveira-Filho  1
Affiliations

DMRT3 Allele Frequencies in Batida- and Picada-Gaited Donkeys and Mules in Brazil

Mariana Herman et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

In Brazil, the production of mules with a comfortable gait primarily involves the breeding of marching saddle mules. This is achieved by crossing gaited Pêga donkeys with horses from the Mangalarga Marchador and Campolina breeds. The DMRT3:g.22999655C>A SNP is implicated in regulating gait phenotypes observed in various horse breeds, including the batida (CC) and picada (CA) gaits found in these horse breeds. We aimed to determine if genotypes influenced gait type in 159 mules and 203 donkeys genotyped for the DMRT3 SNP by PCR-RFLP analysis. About 47% of mules had the CC-genotype, while 53% had the CA-genotype. Donkeys predominantly had the CC-genotype (97%), and none had AA. Both CC- and CA-genotypes were evenly distributed among mules with the batida or picada gaits. In donkeys, the CC-genotype frequencies were consistent regardless of gait type. However, the CA-genotype was more common in picada-gaited donkeys than in batida-gaited donkeys. The prevalence of CA mules and the rare presence of the non-reference allele in donkeys align with previous findings in Mangalarga Marchador and Campolina horses. This suggests that the non-reference allele likely originated from the mares involved in donkey crosses. Our results also imply that factors beyond this variant, such as other genes and polymorphisms, influence gait traits in equids.

Keywords: Brazil; equids; gait keeper; genotype effect; locomotion pattern.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Partial chromatogram showing capillary sequencing results for wild-type homozygous (A), heterozygous (B), and mutated homozygous (C) EquCab3.0 DMRT3_chr23:g.22999655C>A variant (OP068195.1 c.902 C>A). Wild-type allele (cytosine) and the corresponding amino acid serine (blue arrow); double peaks (cytosine/guanine) and the corresponding amino acid stop codon or serine (green arrow) Mutant allele (adenine); and TAG stop codon (red arrow). Images were obtained using Geneious® 10.0 software (Biomartters Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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