Molecular genetic analysis of the horse genome and its consequences for unravelling breeding traits in horses

Horse breeding and husbandry has a large economic impact in Germany. Using the new developments in equine genome analysis, more breeding traits can be analysed by means of molecular genetic tools. Equine linkage and radiation hybrid maps are dense enough to allow whole genome scans. Fine-mapping requires development of new markers, particularly by employing comparative genomics. In the near future however, much progress in respect of development of SNPs and horse genome sequence is expected through the ongoing horse genome project. The horse genome project will provide the first complete genome sequence of a horse. In horses, five monogenetic defects have been described and for some colour loci, such as agouti, extension, cream und sabino mutations associated with phenotypic colour variants have been found. QTL for osteochondrosis (OC) and radiological changes of navicular bones have been reported. A marker in population-wide linkage disequilibrium was shown for OC. It might be expected that important traits in horse breeding will be characterized by QTL and these QTL will be fine mapped using the tools provided by the horse genome project.

Vollversion deutsch