DNA and Thoroughbred Ancestry

[MaryS]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 04490.html

DNA analysis shows thoroughbreds have British as well as Arabian roots
Monday, October 18, 2010; 5:37 PM

Where thoroughbreds came from

Sleek, speedy, and spirited, thoroughbred horses arose from Arabian stallions more than three centuries ago. But whose mares birthed these noble steeds? A new genetic analysis suggests that thoroughbred foremothers hailed from Ireland and Britain.
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In the late 1600s and early 1700s, three stallions imported by British aristocrats became the forefathers of today's thoroughbreds: the Godolphin Arabian, Darley Arabian and Byerley Turk. The three came to England on different paths: One was purchased in France, one acquired in Italy, and the third captured in 1686 from a Turkish officer in a battle at Buda, part of today's Budapest. "We know their names and we have paintings of them," says Mim Bower, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Cambridge in England. Breeders also know a lot about the horses' descendants, as they carefully recorded the lineages over the centuries.

But no one kept track of the moms. Breeders thought that the important parent was the stallion, says Bower, and that any mare would do as a mother. Many breeders assumed that the original mothers were native British horses. But in the early part of the 20th century, some breeders came to believe that thoroughbreds' mothers were also Arabians, probably because this idea seemed more aristocratic. Bower and her colleagues set out to settle the debate with genetics.

They focused on DNA housed within mitochondria, which is passed down only by the mother and can be linked to particular geographical regions.

The researchers analyzed DNA from about 300 thoroughbreds and nearly 2,000 other horses from across Europe and Asia. Most of the sequences came from a genetic database, but the researchers also asked horse owners to provide samples from their animals. "We ask people to pull hair," says Bower. The team then sequenced short stretches of DNA extracted from the tissue attached to the hair.

The thoroughbreds' mitochondrial DNA sequences were closest to those of native Irish and British breeds, including the Connemara. There was a hint of other ancestries, including Arabian, but thoroughbred moms most likely hailed from the British Isles, the researchers reported online in Biology Letters.

- Helen Fields

[Ozark]

Interesting --- But . . . What would be far more interesting and revealing is the proper original mare relationship to the numbers we have been using for thoroughbred mare families. Further, to be able to send a swab or hair sample in to ??? to correctly identify each of our own mares' mitochondrial ancestry so that we know (for sure) the proper female family and her female family number.

[Igeteven]

How old do Arabian roots go back?

[MaryS]

How old do Arabian roots go back?

A long way --

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... egend.html

[Ozark]

Almost zero articles published about the mitchondrial DNA testing and the resulting DNA relationship to the female family numbers we have been using. Since Hill of Ireland took over the project from U of KY several years ago - almost zilch. Does anyone out there know how to obtain information or the results of this project?

[Moonwalker]

Ozark, there are links to several mtDNA articles on a page of the Tbheritage site. That page, including the Irish study results, is here:

http://www.tbheritage.com/GenMarkers.html

The two articles linked on the page explain the implication of the Irish study and how mtDNA can be used in researching pedigrees.

There is a newer paper by Harrison of the U.K. and Turrion-Gomez of Spain called "Mitchondrial DNA: An important female contribution
to thoroughbred racehorse performance" from 2006. It is used by a company called Thoroughbred Genetics, which does DNA testing for breeders. Link to the paper here:

http://thoroughbredgenetics.com/Mitochondrion%206(2006)%2053-66.pdf

Thoroughbred Genetics: http://thoroughbredgenetics.com/index.html

Mary MMM

[Ozark]

Thanks Mary:
Evidently no DNA ties relative to Lowe family numbers was done. At least not published. However, the study did spawn a business. Hmmm.

[Moonwalker]

Thanks Mary:
Evidently no DNA ties relative to Lowe family numbers was done. At least not published. However, the study did spawn a business. Hmmm.

Yes, the link on that page to the "Who's Your Momma" article was about the Lowe family numbers, and how the DNA study showed some lines converged, some were in error, etc.

http://www.tbheritage.com/GeneticMarker ... lines.html

Mary MMM