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The First Horse Genome Sequencing Completed!This will help biological, medical and veterinary research |
By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor
8th of February 2007, 14:37 GMT
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The Horse Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), has notified that the first horse (Equus caballus) genome (the totality of the genes in an organism) sequence has been finished and is freely available for biomedical and veterinary use worldwide.
The research team was led by Dr. Kerstin Lindblad-Toh at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About 300,000 Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) end sequences, used for achieving continuity when analyzing a large genome sequence, were given to the project by German researchers from the University
of Veterinary Medicine, in Hanover, and from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig.
Horse Genome Project started sequencing the DNA of the domestic horse last year, based on 10 years of international researches aimed to employ genetics against important horse conditions.
The researchers used the DNA from a Thoroughbred mare named Twilight, employing just a small blood sample.
Twilight is part of a small herd at the McConville Barn, Baker Institute for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, at Cornell University, New York, made of selected individuals used by more than 25 years in the researches involving the prevention of maternal immunological recognition and destruction of the developing fetus during mammalian pregnancy, with a great importance in human reproduction, clinical organ transplantation and immune regulation.
The team of the Horse Genome Sequencing Project also made a map of horse genetic diversity, making DNA comparisons between modern and old breeds, like the Akel Teke, Andalusian, Arabian, Icelandic, Quarter, Standardbred and Thoroughbred.
The map was made for 1 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and will be an important tool for understanding genetic variability in horses and detects the genes brought that trigger physical and behavioral differences but also disease sensitivity amongst horse breeds.
By now, researchers have detected more than 80 genetic diseases in horses that are similar to genetic disorders found in humans, like musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, cardiovascular and respiratory impairments.
Comparing man and horse genomes will be a tool for medical and veterinary researches, in order to get a better understanding of the diseases common to horses and humans.
This initial sequencing is made on 6.8-fold coverage of the horse genome; this means that each nucleotide has been sequenced, on average, almost seven times over.
Further, the team will bring more details to the current draft of the horse genome sequence.
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