mtDNA and Tregonwell's Natural Barb

[brogers]

A year or so ago we did a private study on mitochondrial DNA, specifically looking into the #1 family of Tregonwell's Natural Barb. We wrote up our findings for the Australian bloodstock magazine BlueBloods. Here is the article as it appeared. Feel free to download it and comment.

http://performancegenetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Tregonwells-Natural-Barb-Bluebloods.pdf

[vineyridge]

To my thinking, you've fallen into the "British" trap. When American TBs (what Alexander Mackay-Smith called the American Running Horse) began to be crossed into the European TB at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the twentieth century, they brought certain lines that were not necessarily either British or Asian. Most of them are said to have been Spanish and well could have been barbs. but we don't know. These lines are found in such European horses as Nearco, Lady Josephine, Tourbillon, Graf Ferry, Orby, Spendthrift, and many, many other horses with American roots. While these lines may not have survived tail female except in the American and Colonial families, all of which trace back to unknowns, they are still present in the modern day TB.

Your work is very interesting and points out Hill and Bowers et al errors and over simplifications. Well done.

[brogers]

Thanks. In fairness I did a very "British" family in the #1 family, but I agree with much of what you have said. Certainly widespread mtDNA haplotyping would set aside many, but not all, of the questions over the origins of the breed.

In fairness to Emmeline Hill, she did her study back in 2002 so it was awfully expensive at that time to do anything but the d-loop. While she made a mistake in her paper by miscalling a mutation, it did alert us to errors in the Stud Book to start with and her work was at least comprehensive at the time. I've got less empathy for Bower and her work. I think that when she clearly had the ability to do whole mtDNA genomes and knew based on Harrison that relying on d-loop sequences for classification wasn't optimal, to just rely on d-loop data alone in 2012 was intellectually lazy. I'm surprised that at least one of her papers was published in the first place.