Shaping Race Horses with Key Genes

In the 2022 Article by University College Dublin on Phys Org, it states that artificial selection is the identification by humans of desirable traits in plants and animals. It appeals to humans as it is fast, allowing them to mold organisms to fit their needs. In recent years, a critical set of genes linked to successful racehorses has been identified by an international research team.

In their testing, the scientists compared the genomes of multiple different breeds of horses bred for sports. What they found was that they were able to pinpoint the set of genes that played a major role in the muscle, metabolism, and neurobiology of successful race horses. The researchers used gene expression data from skeletal muscle from thoroughbred horses to investigate if the genes they had identified were involved in the muscle response to exercise and training. By integrating the two data sets of the different breeds of horses. They are now able to fine-tune the list of racing genes to those that were most biologically relevant to racing. One of these genes is NTM which functions the brain development and influences learning and memory, which is a key role in determining whether the horse ever races. 

It is very interesting to see how science has progressed over the years and how it has allowed humans to shape the genes of animals for our own benefit. Although I believe that one should use their knowledge and resources to shape the best result, I am wondering how the use of artificial selection will shape the racing industry. How is the industry going to look in the future when everyone is producing winners?  

Sources 

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-sport-kings-key-genes-linked.html 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/artificial-selection 

Horse Cloning?!?!

    In today’s technology, there are new discoveries made daily, the horse industry is no exception. In 2003, the horse industry changed forever. The first successful cloning of a horse (a filly named Prometea) took place in the spring of 2003. Since then technology has only improved and there has been somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple hundred cloned horses produced. Cloning, in terms of the horse, is a complex process of producing individual organisms with identical DNA. This would mean producing a foal with the same DNA as a preceding horse. This is most common in the highest levels of competition. Cloning is no cheap expense. Although the price has gone down it still runs around $90,000. As the first article states cloning seems to have no real benefit except that breeders know what the horse can grow to be (height, weight, muscling, and possible medical immunity.) Clones show no direct relation to their competitive performance. They also grow and develop very similar to that of a naturally bred horse. It is easiest to think of a clone as an identical twin born at a different time. Clones require the same amount of work and training as those of naturally bred means and will not reach their previous full potential without it. Clones also may not have the same demeanor as the previous horse depending on the environment they grew up in. After reading this article about cloning in horses I don’t find cloning to be unethical. If there is not a clear-cut link to their previous competitive performance I do not see a problem in cloning. Although this is not a natural process and can be abused in many ways by irresponsible breeders, it can also advance our knowledge significantly of genetically inherited medical issues in the horse and possibly save others in the future. I am in agreeance with the idea of cloning in equines for medical purposes.

https://horseracingsense.com/can-cloned-horses-race-it-ethical-expensive/

https://www.dvm360.com/view/cloning-new-reproductive-tool-equine-veterinarians

https://www.nature.com/articles/news030804-8

Vikings Gave Us Smooth Riding Horses

            Have you ever ridden on a horse and the ride was just really “bumpy?” Chances are the horse you were riding on did not have the DMRT3 gene, otherwise known as the “gaitkeeper” gene.

Horses have long been a way in which human beings have been able to travel far distances. During the early centuries of mankind, horses were mostly used for transportation as well as a “vehicle” for riding into battle. Today, horses are prize animals showcased in equestrian competitions and the Olympics. Interestingly enough, there is one thing that you might not be able to see in Olympic competing horses: ambling. Why is that? The answer: Genes.

There is a certain breed of horses that are known to be able to amble, which is a type of gait that is not as fast as a gallop but faster than a walk which provides riders with a much smoother ride (See video for ambling). Evolutionary geneticist Arne Ludwig and others from the Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin analyzed DNA from the remains of 90 horses some of which dating back to the 9^th century. They discovered that some of these horses contained this “gaitkeeper” gene which allowed horses to amble smoothly over long distances. This gene mutation was also found in early Icelandic horses but interestingly enough, not in any other horse remains found from the same time period in mainland Europe. The gene mutation DMRT3 has been viewed by researchers as a controller of the expression of genes in neurons that coordinate muscle movement allowing for the horses to amble.

Although just a theory, it is believed that the Vikings were the ones to first use these ambling horses and began to introduce them into the trading market of the 9^th century as far as the Middle East and Caspian Sea. With that in mind, the introduction of ambling horses for transportation revolutionized journeys over long distances for humans. Not only did these ambling horses make traveling smoother, it also allowed travelers to journey longer without having to stop to rest from the “bumpy” ride of horses without the DMRT3 gene, making trips much faster. To this day, there are many breeds of horses that contain the DMRT3 gene. So the next time you want to go horse-back riding, get a genetic sequence of the horses to find the ones that will provide you with a smooth ride.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/science/horses-gaits-ambling-vikings.html)

New Biofuel from Horse Digestive Fungus

[caption id="attachment_7820" align="alignleft" width="530" caption="Horse Digestive Fungus"][/caption]

An article from Science Daily describes a new method of producing biofuel from horse feces.  Another article was published on MITnews.  Cellulose is the compound used for making biofuels from non-food plant materials but, it is difficult to extract through the lignin within the cell walls of plants.  In order to do this lignin must be removed, enzyme must be used to break down cellulose into sugars, then the sugars are digested by microbes to ferment into alcohol to produce the fuel.  This process is extensive and expensive.

A fungus found in the digestive tract of a horse lives on lignin-rich plants and converts the cellulose into sugars for the animal.  This could make the process biofuels much easier and less expensive.  Scientists are now trying to isolate the genes that produce these enzymes and genetically engineer them into yeasts.  Since yeasts are already commercially used for products such as antibiotics and foods, the production technology already exists.  So far all the genetic material of this gut fungus use to break down the cellulose has been isolated from horse feces.  These protein-encoding materials are named “transcriptome” facilitated the identification of hundreds of enzymes capable of breaking down the lignin and extracting cellulose.

Exercise And The Reproductive Ability in Horses

ScienceDaily introduced a recent study on the impacts of exercise on a mare’s reproductive ability and embryo transfer. The researchers who performed this study divided up the mare horses into groups. The light-horse mares were divided up into three groups which were no exercise, partial-exercise and full-exercise. The mares that had no exercise were the control group. The purpose of this study was to measure the reproductive blood flow as well as the quality and quantity of embryos developed. The results from this study indicated that exercise increased the concentrations of cortisol being produced in mare horses, which can have a significant effect on mare reproduction. The partial-exercised and full-exercised mare horses showed reduced embryo recovery rates in comparison to the no exercise control group.



This study is interesting because it provides the ability to look further into embryo development and transfer. With the use of today’s advancing technology scientists can help to improve the quality of mare embryos.

Genetic forensics that have a more "artistic" approach

 

Cave paintings drawn over 20,000 years ago depict images of many animals, most notably in France, those of horses. Archaeologists have been trying to determine for years whether or not these cave images represent actual creatures that coexisted with the human artists that drew these cave wall frescos, or creatures derived from their imaginations.  DNA from the bones and teeth of remains found in the area showed that the creatures have black or brown coats, the same colors depicted in many of the drawings, with aesthetic traits such as spotted patterns known as leopard, being prevalent in both pieces of evidence.  The DNA extraction from such old remains was a difficult process; factors such as contamination, which plagued DNA evidence from the Netharlands years before, needed to be taken seriously.  In order to combat said issues, precautionary measures include UV lights for sterilization, HEPA filter air flow, clean suits and bleach.  With biological data and artistic history filling each remnant to the brim, no amount of safe collection procedure is too great.