Experts Meet to Finalize Horse DNA Mapping

January 16, 2007

On January 15, the world’s top horse geneticists assembled at the Beckman Center for a special workshop to discuss plans for completing a map of the hereditary information present in all types and species of horses. This project, which was begun by the NIH/Broad Institute/MIT Genome Center, is an effort to compile data which will help scientists, veterinarians, and animal care professionals understand the difference between horse breeds and identify genetic issues related to disease.

“Humans have had such a long history with horses, creating different breeds over the centuries to stress varying physical factors,” said Ernest Bailey, Ph.D., of Veterinary Science for the M.H. Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky. “Our work to identify the basic genetic elements which make up the differences and similarities in these breeds will help us to better understand them and care for them in the future.”

The project is just one part of a larger effort to map the genetic information of all mammalian species. “New technologies and understanding of genetic information is allowing us to compile data about species that has never been compiled before,” said Oliver Ryder, Ph.D., geneticist for the Zoological Society of San Diego’s center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Species (CRES). “By learning about and understanding the genetic information stored in each species we can address genetic issues which are occurring for those animals whose populations are critically endangered.”

The Zoological Society has worked with endangered equine species such as the Prezwalski’s horse for more than two decades. A key challenge for conserving this critically endangered species has been separating out the genomic traits of the wild species from those of the domestic horse caused by interbreeding as domestic animals are introduced into wild habitats.

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