New Genetic Study relates Chromosome 18 to Elite Performance

[brogers]

Following on from similar studies by Emmeline Hill (Equinome) and Teruaki Tozaki on the myostatin gene, the two have combined for a more exhaustive look at 1700+ horses and the relationship of genes located on Chrmosome 18 with Elite performance and best race distance.

A cohort study of racing performance in Japanese Thoroughbred racehorses using genome information on ECA18

T. Tozaki, E. W. Hill, K. Hirota, H. Kakoi, H. Gawahara, T. Miyake, S. Sugita, T. Hasegawa, N. Ishida, Y. Nakano, M. Kurosawa.

Abstract
Using 1710 Thoroughbred racehorses in Japan, a cohort study was performed to evaluate the influence of genotypes at four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on equine chromosome 18 (ECA18), which were associated in a previous genome-wide association study for racing performance with lifetime earnings and performance rank. In males, both g.65809482T>C and g.65868604G>T were related to performance rank (P = 0.005). In females, g.65809482T>C (P = 1.76E-6), g.65868604G>T (P = 6.81E-6) and g.66493737C>T (P = 4.42E-5) were strongly related to performance rank and also to lifetime earnings (P < 0.05). When win-race distance (WRD) among all winning racehorses and best race distance (BRD) among elite racehorses were considered as the phenotypes, significant associations (P < 0.001) were observed for all four SNPs. The favourable race distance of both elite (BRD) and novice racehorses (WRD) was also associated with genotypes in the ECA18 region, indicating the presence of a gene in this region influencing optimum race distance in Thoroughbred racehorses. Therefore, the association with performance rank is likely due to the bias in the race distances. The location of the SNPs within and proximal to the gene encoding myostatin (MSTN) strongly suggests that regulation of the MSTN gene affects racing performance. In particular, the g.65809482T>C, g.65868604G>T and g.66493737C>T SNPs, or their combinations, may be genetic diagnostic markers for racing performance indicators such as WRD and BRD.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2052.2011.02201.x/abstract;jsessionid=46AC9BDC7C4A03E4682309E6490FF614.d03t01

[xfactor fan]

Ok, so what else lives on Chromosome 18 that can be used as a marker?

[Pan Zareta]

Ok, so what else lives on Chromosome 18 that can be used as a marker?

As a marker for racing performance? I think Binns et al. 2010 identified a SNP that's not mentioned in the above abstract, but like them it's in/near the MSTN exons.

[xfactor fan]

Actually I was thinking about something that could be easily seen by the layman--like coat color. Something on the same chromosome that isn't related to the genes that they have identified, but could be used to track chromosome movement.