In the open access journal PLOS ONE last week, scientists from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna

(Vetmeduni Vienna) reported the findings of research into genetic variability in the Y chromosome of the modern horse. The work addresses the problem of tracing male lineages in domestic horses, which has proven difficult due to the lack of sequence diversity detected on their Y chromosomes. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA is conventionally used to trace the female ancestry of humans and other animals, but in the case of the modern horse, the mitochondrial DNA is known to be extremely diverse and is taken to represent a multitude of ancestral female bloodlines. The relative lack of diversity on the Y chromosome has therefore not only made it impossible thus far to accurately reconstruct male bloodlines, but also seems paradoxical since there appear to be so many ancestral mares, why do there seem to be so few ancestral stallions? Dr Barbara Wallner, from Vetmedunis Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, outlined the aims of the research and the conclusions she and her team have been able to draw from it for ScienceOmega.com. The team wished to address several questions, including the above: how many different lines can be detected in modern breeds? How are the stallion lines distributed among these breeds, and where do they come from? Is it possible to trace, in detail, the influence of particular founders on the extant horse population and on certain breeds? "Anyone with an interest in horse breeding is confronted with the influential stallion lines," stated Dr Wallner. "Influential stallions are extensively used to establish and strengthen the characteristics of a breed, either within closed populations as was the case with the founders of the English thoroughbred or through intensive use in foreign populations to refine and upgrade autochthonous breeds, such as in the import of stallions from the Middle East to Central Europe." To form a description of the genetic basis of a horse breed, the number and origin of their stallion lines is recorded; the single Norwegian Fjord founder, Njal, and the six Lipizzan horse founders which are distinguishable by name are examples. "Until now it was not possible to genetically characterise stallion lines, due to the lack of polymorphic markers on the Y chromosome of the domestic horse," explained Dr Wallner. "Our intention was to develop a tool to differentiate male founder lines in modern horses." Read more: http://www.scienceomega.com/article/1028/horsing-aroundmodern-stallions-closely-related#ixzz2QHdqBMft