ֱ̽ of Cambridge - Mim Bower /taxonomy/people/mim-bower en Would you place a Grand National bet on a Shetland pony? /research/features/would-you-place-a-grand-national-bet-on-a-shetland-pony <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/features/150706-horses-teeth.jpg?itok=lJlkgqCS" alt="" title="Credit: None" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em><strong>Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.</strong></em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>One hundred and seventy years ago, the French state commissioned a physician called Louis Auzoux to make models of horse’s teeth as examples of healthy and unhealthy equine dentition. At a time when cadavers were in short supply, Auzoux had pioneered a method of making realistic models of human and animal bodies to use as teaching aids.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As horses mature, and then grow older, their teeth change. People familiar with horses can gauge a horse’s age by looking in its mouth. This practice is the origin of the saying, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” In fact, this was a very good idea if you were buying a horse; in order to make an animal appear younger, and demand a higher price, dishonest dealers sometimes filed down horses’ teeth.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Malformed teeth, which prevent a horse from eating properly and affect its performance, are another problem to look out for – as are signs of ‘vices’ such as crib-biting and wind-sucking.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽<a href="https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk">Whipple Museum of the History of Science</a> in Cambridge has a set of horse teeth models made by a factory set up by Auzoux. Dated 1890, and still housed in the sturdy case made to transport them, this ‘box set’ of smiling and grimacing equine teeth is one of the best-loved objects in the museum and takes prime position in its twitter feed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Less than half a mile from the Whipple Museum is the <a href="https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/museum">Museum of Classical Archaeology</a>, home to 35 plaster casts of horses, taken from the originals. Cantering, trotting, rearing and frolicking, these horses are the stars of the procession which winds its way around the famous frieze adorning the Parthenon, the showpiece temple atop the Akropolis in Athens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p align="center"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/150706-parthenon-frieze-horses2.jpg" style="width: 590px; height: 393px;" /></p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽Parthenon was erected when Athens was a flourishing city-state. Construction began in 447 BCE and was finally finished in 432. ֱ̽temple celebrated the city’s patron goddess, Athena. ֱ̽horses on the frieze were part of a procession honouring her during the Great Panathenaea. A festival which took place every four years, it featured athletic games including wrestling, javelin throwing and chariot racing.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽frieze shows representatives of the city – city elders and officials, soldiers, young men and unmarried maidens, and even resident aliens, known as ‘metics’ – coming together to process from the city walls to the top of the Akropolis and the temple itself. “These human figures represented the city, or <em>polis</em>, in microcosm,” says Dr Susanne Turner, curator of the Museum of Classical Archaeology.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It is the horses, though, which dominate the frieze. Powerful and compact, with manes and tails flowing and small holes in the marble indicating that they originally wore bronze bridles, the horses are well attuned to the easy grace of the athletic youths on their backs and at their sides. Some of the riders wear flowing cloaks which fan out behind them, as if caught by a breeze. Many wear no other clothes.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Their nudity is a sort of costume in itself,” says Turner. “There’s something inherently Greek about their nakedness. It connotes strength, beauty and idealised youthful masculinity, but it also carries a wider sense of cultural belonging.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽rhythm of repeated and overlapping diagonals, made by the limbs of horses and riders, leads the eye across what was originally a frieze 160m in length, made up by 115 blocks. On the Parthenon the frieze would have soared 12m above floor level. “Viewers approaching the temple saw first the horses and their riders preparing to join the procession,” says Turner.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“As they turned the corner to walk along the long sides of the temple, so too did the horses, now with riders and chariots. Layered side by side in small groups, they form a cavalcade whose forward motion draws the viewer onwards until they reach the doors of the temple – where the goddess herself was revealed inside, some 10m tall and sculpted from bright white ivory and shining gold.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p align="center"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/150706-parthenon-frieze-horses.jpg" style="width: 590px; height: 393px; line-height: 20.79px;" /></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Much ancient sculpture was brightly painted and the Parthenon frieze was probably no exception. Surviving evidence for colour is, however, scant. “Ancient colour combinations, where they can be reconstructed, often look harsh and garish to modern eyes. We tend to prefer our classical sculpture white,” says Turner. “ ֱ̽Parthenon horses probably galloped across a bright blue background, their riders’ clothing and hair picked out in primary colours, perhaps with some gold leaf, too.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽casts were purchased by the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1884, when the Museum of Classical Archaeology was first founded. Produced by a London workshop run by the Brucciani family, the casts are direct copies of the originals, taken from moulds produced by permission of the British Museum. They preserve the three-dimensional presence of the originals in a way which photographs cannot – breathing life into the horses as they high-step joyfully along the length of the frieze as only horses can.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Horses played a central role in the rise of many great civilisations. Archaeological evidence suggests that they were first domesticated during the Neolithic around 5,000 years ago somewhere in the vast grassy pastures of central Asia. “Botai in Kazakhstan has been identified as one of the earliest sites with domestic horses. Botai horses show tooth wear patterns characteristic of the use of harness, and horse milk lipids on pottery fragments show that horse milk was being used,” says Dr Mim Bower, an expert in ancient DNA at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Horse husbandry dispersed from the steppe, westward into Europe, via the grasslands of Eastern Europe or via Iberia, accompanying Bell Beaker cultures, and eastward into China and India. This was concurrent with the spread of chariots and fabulous material culture that comprised the ‘chariot complex’ of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC – for example, the chariot burials at Sintashta and Southern Urals and cylinder seal impressions, depicting horses and chariots, from Kültepe in Turkey.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽development of pastoral nomadism in central Eurasia between 1000 and 800 BC secured the role of the horse as a source of speed over ground and as an iconic symbol. ֱ̽archaeological finds associated with this period include exquisitely decorated horse harness and adornments from 4th -3rd century BC sites, such as Pazyryk and Ak-Alakha, Altai and 7th – 4th century BC Arzhan, Tuva.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Where written records exist for these early periods, for example in China, they highlight the importance of the horse as a symbol of strength and power. Throughout the dynastic eras, horses gained an increasingly important military role. In the Western Zhou period, the raising of horses is recorded as a task that is overseen by kings. In later periods, the military power of the state was measured by the number of horse-chariots,” says Bower.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“These changes are concurrent with, and may have influenced, the intensification of long distance trade routes that connected the far reaches of Eurasia. Tradition states that trade routes, associated with the exchange of silk and spices, between China and Europe, began in the 2nd century BC, instigated by Han Emperor Wu. However, these long distance exchange networks have a deeper past. By 1000 BC, Chinese silk is found in Egypt and by 700 BC in Europe. Horses were almost certainly an integral part of these developments.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Arab horses were famed for their speed and beauty. It was from the Middle East that three Arab stallions were imported to Britain at the turn of the 18th century. ֱ̽Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerley Turk were crossed with some 70 British mares to produce horses for racing. All British Thoroughbreds trace their lineage back to these world famous ‘foundation stallions’.</p>&#13; &#13; <p align="center"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/150706-polymelys-nick-armour-2012.jpg" style="width: 478px; height: 600px;" /></p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽skeleton of a famous British racehorse called Polymelus was given to Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology in the 1930s and until recently stood sentinel in the museum entrance. Polymelus was the sire (father) of a string of leading racehorses foaled (born) between 1914 and 1921. His son Phalaris was a champion racehorse who went on to sire many winners. Among Polymelus’s other descendants are the racehorses Secretariat and Northern Dancer who also became legends in their time.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In a study carried out in 2012, tiny samples of DNA were taken from one of the teeth of the skeleton of Polymelus. They were analysed at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research as part of an inter-disciplinary project tracing the genes for speed and stamina found in modern thoroughbreds backwards in time to discover their origins. ֱ̽DNA of 12 historic horse skeletons was screened, including that of Eclipse, the most famous of all.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽work showed just how rapidly the genetic make-up of a breed can be shaped by humans and will help throw light on common health problems experienced by thoroughbreds. Interestingly, the speed gene which gives horses their sprinting ability was traced back to one of the British mares (including a Shetland pony) used at the early stages of the development of the British Thoroughbred line. </p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Next in the <a href="/subjects/cambridge-animal-alphabet">Cambridge Animal Alphabet</a>: I is for a creature inside which investors, men of science and a notable sculptor dined in style on New Year's Eve 1853.</strong></p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Inset images: Horses on the Parthenon frieze (Museum of Classical Archaeology); skeleton of Polymelus (Musuem of Zoology).</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249810779&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>The <a href="/subjects/cambridge-animal-alphabet">Cambridge Animal Alphabet</a> series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, H is for Horse – 170-year-old model teeth, the Parthenon friezes, and the surprising origins of racehorses' speed.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> In the Western Zhou period, the raising of horses is recorded as a task that is overseen by kings</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mim Bower</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-media field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div id="file-85662" class="file file-video file-video-youtube"> <h2 class="element-invisible"><a href="/file/85662"> ֱ̽horses’ teeth</a></h2> <div class="content"> <div class="cam-video-container media-youtube-video media-youtube-1 "> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/V8-ptZZoZBE?wmode=opaque&controls=1&rel=0&autohide=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> </div> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0px;" /></a><br />&#13; ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Mon, 20 Jul 2015 09:48:38 +0000 amb206 154722 at Solved: two of the historic riddles of horse racing /research/news/solved-two-of-the-historic-riddles-of-horse-racing <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/120522-historic-horses-flying-dutchman.jpg?itok=R6KAcSkh" alt=" ֱ̽Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur by John F Herring Sr. (1795 - 1865) " title=" ֱ̽Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur by John F Herring Sr. (1795 - 1865) , Credit: Flickr Creative Commons" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>A team of researchers examining DNA extracted from the skeletons of historic horses in order to throw light on the origin of diseases found in modern horses have, in the course of their work, solved some of the mysteries that have long puzzled the horse-racing world.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽researchers' meticulous analysis answers the question of which of two horses actually won the Epsom Derby of 1880, revealing that the winner was running under the name of another horse.   ֱ̽same study has also led to the authentication of the 220-year-old skeleton of Eclipse, a legendary name in racing worldwide.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽project – published in the current issue of the journal Archaeometry – involved not just laboratory work to analyse the DNA contained in bones, hair and blood of 300 living Thoroughbred horses but also an examination of historic archives held in Cambridge ֱ̽ Library and close scrutiny of some of the most iconic paintings of horses.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽research project was led jointly by Dr Mim Bower of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, ֱ̽ of Cambridge, who is an expert in the domestication of horses in pre-history, and a team from the Royal Veterinary College, including members of the Structure and Motion Group.</p>&#13; <p>“ ֱ̽purpose of the research was to develop tools that will help us understand the genetic history of the Thoroughbred horse – and, in particular, to discover when certain catastrophic genetic diseases might have entered the gene pool,” said Dr Bower. “Knowledge of the history of these diseases will help us in improving the health of living racehorses.”</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽Epsom Derby, to be run today, is one of the great classics of British racing. In the race of June 1880, a horse named Bend Or crossed the finishing line a whisker ahead of his rival, Robert the Devil. Celebrations turned sour when the owners of Robert the Devil claimed that Bend Or was running under the wrong name and was in fact a horse called Tadcaster.  They argued that the two had been confused as yearlings - and that Robert the Devil was therefore the bona fide winner.</p>&#13; <p>Bend Or and Tadcaster came from the Duke of Westminster’s Eaton Stud in Cheshire. With the same sire but out of two different dams, the three-year-olds looked strikingly similar – though the dam of the horse running in the Derby as Bend Or came from a lineage that had never won a race and the dam of the horse known as Tadcaster came from a winning line.</p>&#13; <p>At a stewards’ inquiry the owners of the two horses – who had long been arch enemies - argued their cases. ֱ̽inquiry found for the owners of Bend Or who went on to stand at stud and, on the basis of his Derby win, made the Duke of Westminster a small fortune. In a twist worthy of a Dick Francis thriller, one of the stud grooms who had handled the two horses as youngsters was reported to have confessed on his deathbed that the two animals had been confused – but he had been dismissed by the Duke of Westminster so his word was doubted.</p>&#13; <p>Samples of DNA taken from the skeleton of Bend Or, which is archived in the Natural History Museum, were shown to match that of the living relatives of Tadcaster, proving almost without doubt that the horse running under the name Bend Or in the Derby of 1880 was indeed Tadcaster.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽same team of researchers have also looked at the DNA of Eclipse, a chestnut stallion named after the solar eclipse of 1 April 1764, during which he was foaled. Bred by the Duke of Cumberland (known as the Butcher of Culloden), he easily won all 18 of the races in which he was entered, inspiring the phrase “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere”. He was immortalised by George Stubbs who painted several portraits of him, the most famous of which hangs in the Jockey Club’s Newmarket offices.</p>&#13; <p>Once retired from racing, Eclipse became a phenomenal success at stud, siring more than 300 winners. Some 95 per cent of modern Thoroughbreds have him in their ancestry. “His descendants include Desert Orchid, Shergar, Red Rum, Pharlap and Northern Dancer to name just a few,” said Dr Bower.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽racing world was keen to discover the secret of Eclipse’s awesome speed and on his death in 1789 an autopsy took place. Performed by a French veterinary surgeon called Vial de Saint Bel and thought to have been the first-ever formally-documented animal autopsy in the UK, the procedure revealed that Eclipse had a massive heart – at least 25 per cent larger than average.  His large heart, combined with a physique that gave his paces tremendous scope, is thought to be the reason for his outstanding speed on the racecourse.</p>&#13; <p>During the autopsy detailed drawings were made of Eclipse’s physiology and measurements of his bones were noted. These records are held by Cambridge ֱ̽ Library together with early volumes of private and national studbooks (including the General Stud Book) going back to the 17<sup>th</sup> century. Vial’s autopsy led to the foundation of the London Veterinary College (now ֱ̽Royal Veterinary College) and Vial became the first Principal of the College on 8 April 1791.</p>&#13; <p>Dr Bower said: “ ֱ̽records of this early autopsy represent a vital historical resource for pedigree research which we use to trace the spread of desirable or undesirable genetic traits, for example. Today, the identity and parentage of every Thoroughbred horse is verified by genetic typing. In the past, records relied on the accuracy of recording at each of the Thoroughbred foundation studs.</p>&#13; <p>“However, our research has shown that early Stud Book records are considerably more accurate than previously thought, and that errors, where they exist, are as a result of a lack of understanding of the precise biological modes of inheritance in the past. For example, fraternal sisters being recorded as part of the same maternal lineage, despite sharing a father rather than a mother.”</p>&#13; <p>Eclipse’s skeleton was put on display as a curiosity and later transported up and down Britain, packed into boxes and reassembled at different destinations. It was eventually acquired by the Royal Veterinary College, where it is now on display in its resource centre, known as the Eclipse Building.</p>&#13; <p>It has always been thought that the skeleton of Eclipse, if authentic at all, was likely to have been a composite of bones from different horses including some from the famous stallion himself – and it did seem highly possible that over the years the bones had been confused. Rumour had it that the head, in particular, came from a different horse. ֱ̽existence of five “Eclipse” hooves added to scepticism about the skeleton.</p>&#13; <p>Now evidence from meticulous ancient DNA analysis, and cross referencing scientific findings with contemporary sources, indicate that the majority of the skeleton (including the head) is authentic. ֱ̽authentication of the bones involved several strands of research which were undertaken in the laboratories of the McDonald Institute in Cambridge and the Royal Veterinary College in London.</p>&#13; <p>“We matched the mitochondrial DNA taken from Eclipse’s skeleton with DNA taken from his direct female descendants, traced by referencing their lineage from the records contained in the volumes of the Stud Book, early historic studbooks and Bobinsky’s Thoroughbred breed tables, held in Cambridge ֱ̽ Library,” said Dr Bower.</p>&#13; <p>“We also matched the coat colour genes with the colours in Stubbs’s paintings. We looked at the stable isotopes across different elements of the Eclipse skeleton and matched high precision measurements of the skeleton with those taken at the time of the autopsy in 1789. ֱ̽comparison of measurements was a real puzzle because the inch – which in England was based on three barley grains lying end to end - was not formally standardised until 1959.”</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽research that led to these discoveries has implications both for archaeo-geneticists and for veterinarians. It is thought that humans first domesticated wild horses at least 7,000 years ago. Ever since, horses have played a central role not just in everyday lives but also in the human imagination with the ultimate horse being the fine-tuned athlete of the racetrack.</p>&#13; <p>“Archaeological finds such as chariot burials suggest that horses were selected for specific traits, such as speed and colour, and that humans were making sophisticated active choices about which animals, and therefore which desirable traits, they chose to proliferate,” said Dr Bower.</p>&#13; <p>In the early days racing took place over long distances, typically four miles, with horses being tested for stamina as well as speed.  Races were head to head with just two horses being run against each other, in multiple heats. ֱ̽end of the 19th century saw the number of runners being increased and race distances being dramatically shortened. Short bursts of intense speed put a strain on a horse’s body with some horses beginning their racing careers at the age of two.</p>&#13; <p>“Thoroughbred horses are elite athletes capable of impressive performances – but they are also prone to debilitating conditions such as bone fracture and tendon injury and exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage, many of which are thought to have a genetic basis. Our study of elite horses from the past will help us trace the spread of genetic disorders into the present – and it’s also been fascinating to have some historic puzzles along the way,” said Dr Bower.</p>&#13; <p> </p>&#13; <p> </p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p> ֱ̽identity of the winner of the 1880 Epsom Derby – the classic race to be run today - was famously disputed. Now analysis of DNA from the bones of historic horses has solved the mystery conclusively - and has confirmed the authenticity of the skeleton of one of the most famous stallions of all time.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> ֱ̽purpose of the research was to develop tools that will help us understand the genetic history of the Thoroughbred horse and discover when certain genetic diseases entered the gene pool.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dr Mim Bower</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Flickr Creative Commons</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> ֱ̽Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur by John F Herring Sr. (1795 - 1865) </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/80x15.png" style="width: 80px; height: 15px;" /></a></p>&#13; <p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://www.rvc.ac.uk/">Royal Veterinary College</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="https://www.rvc.ac.uk/">Royal Veterinary College</a></div></div></div> Sat, 02 Jun 2012 08:15:24 +0000 amb206 26753 at Speed and stamina: a tale of two genes /research/news/speed-and-stamina-a-tale-of-two-genes <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/120124-parish-hall-winner.jpg?itok=lPAH0aHw" alt="Parish Hall on right (a champion with Northern Dancer ancestry on both sides) wins the Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October 2011 for Jim Bolger" title="Parish Hall on right (a champion with Northern Dancer ancestry on both sides) wins the Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October 2011 for Jim Bolger, Credit: Trevor Jones, Thoroughbred Photography" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>A project bringing together researchers from six different institutions indicates that a particular variation of the gene group called myostatin, which is partly responsible for the impressive speed of the world’s highest-performing thoroughbred racehorses, has been present in the lineage of some thoroughbred horses for at least three centuries and may have come from one particular mare</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽findings, published today in the online journal <em>Nature Communications</em>, emerged from a study of the DNA of hundreds of living horses – including thoroughbreds and many of the world’s native breeds – as well as ancient DNA extracted from the skeletons of elite historic horses, among them the legendary Eclipse, one of the most famous horses of all time.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽research was led by Dr Emmeline Hill, a genomics scientist at ֱ̽ College Dublin (UCD) and Dr Mim Bower, an archaeo-geneticist at the ֱ̽ of Cambridge. ֱ̽other institutions contributing to the study were Equinome Ltd, the Swedish ֱ̽ of Agricultural Sciences, the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽study shines new light on the interplay between speed and stamina in thoroughbreds, and how the two have been manipulated by humans through many generations of selective breeding. It will intrigue horse-lovers round the world as the single mare thought to have been responsible for introducing the speed gene may have been a British native horse. Many native breeds are now extinct but they shared their genetic make-up with some of the hardy pony types that have survived until today, such as the Dartmoor and Shetland.</p>&#13; <p>Dr Bower’s work at Cambridge's McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research focuses on the relationship between humans and other animals – and how they have shaped each other. In the wild, horses need both speed and stamina to outrun their predators. Horses were domesticated around 7,000 years ago – and racing may have followed soon after. In the fiercely-competitive environment of the racetrack, success is determined by a combination of both speed and stamina in proportions varying according to the distances raced.</p>&#13; <p>At the turn of the 18<sup>th</sup> century a group of wealthy English landowners famously imported three stallions from the Middle East – the Darley Arabian, Godolphin Arabian and Byerley Turk – which were crossed with a total of 74 predominantly British and some imported mares. All thoroughbreds are descended from these foundation horses – and ever since details of their lineages have been carefully recorded, most notably in the General Stud Book, thus creating an extraordinarily valuable resource for today’s researchers.</p>&#13; <p>For more than 300 years, breeders and trainers have striven to produce horses with the perfect combination of speed and stamina. Performance on the track is a matter of environment, management and training as well as breeding. However, it has long been accepted that there are underlying genetic factors that influence a horse’s capabilities as an athlete. Breeders have always used their intimate knowledge of winning lines to produce successful horses. Sophisticated DNA analysis techniques now allow scientists to look at the genetic make-up of both living and historic horses.</p>&#13; <p>In 2010 Dr Hill and colleagues at UCD showed that a variant of myostatin – a gene group that usually inhibits muscle differentiation and growth – was partly responsible for elite race performance in thoroughbred horses. These findings led Dr Hill to team up with Dr Bower and others to launch a follow-up study exploring the origins of this genetic component in the ancestry of the modern thoroughbred, going right back to the foundation stages of the breed in the late 17<sup>th</sup> century.</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽researchers traced the gene variant backwards in time by screening the myostatin genes of hundreds of living horses, including some of the current stars of the racing world, and the skeletons of 12 historic thoroughbred horses held in archives round the country. Their results strongly suggest that the speed variant of myostatin entered the thoroughbred gene pool only once, around 300 years ago, and is likely to have come from a British native mare – perhaps one of the strong and stocky breeds of mountain and moorland ponies that thrived in the tough setting of Northern England and Scotland.</p>&#13; <p> </p>&#13; <p>Speed and stamina are associated with two different variations of the myostatin gene complex: the C:T variant (known as C-gene) for speed and the T:T variant (known as T-gene) for stamina. In the early days of horse racing, contestants raced head-to-head over long distances – up to four miles – with the winner determined by a series of two-horse heats. Outstanding stamina was vital to a winner. Many elite horses – including Eclipse - have been shown to have two copies of the T-gene.  Breeders progressively selected for stamina over distance and thus, unwittingly, maintained high levels of the T-gene in the thoroughbred population.</p>&#13; <p>From the mid-19<sup>th</sup> century onwards, races became shorter with a greater number of runners and, at the same time, the racing industry began staging races for very young horses, with thoroughbreds increasingly starting their careers as two-year-olds.  ֱ̽combination of young horses running over short distances favours animals which mature early in terms of musculature and develop the capacity to sprint in intensive high-speed bursts.</p>&#13; <p>As the ideal speed/stamina balance shifted, breeders began selecting for sprinting ability, thus favouring the rarer C-gene over the more commonly found T-gene. ֱ̽researchers have been able to pin the recent spread of the C-gene to Nearctic, a horse foaled (born) in Canada in the mid-1950s. Nearctic’s phenomenal record on the racetrack made him a sought-after stallion. Among others, he sired (fathered) Northern Dancer, another legendary winner, who once retired went on to sire (father) many other high-performing horses, thus rapidly disseminating the C-gene among elite horses all over the world.</p>&#13; <p>Once the researchers knew they were looking for the origin of the C-gene rather than the T-gene that appears in all of the historic elite stallions they studied, they knew without a doubt that they needed to look at the female line.</p>&#13; <p>As Dr Bower explains: “Our findings point to a British mare – one of the mares crossed with the three foundation stallions or their early descendants – being the most likely source of the original C-gene for speed because one of the lines of evidence from the research demonstrates that the prize-winning foundation stallions of the 17<sup>th</sup> and 18<sup>th</sup> centuries had two copies of the T-type speed gene which is linked to stamina rather than one copy of the C-type and one copy of the T-type associated with speed.”</p>&#13; <p>To identify more precisely where the C-type gene variant originated, the researchers analysed DNA samples from more than 20 horse breeds, that included representatives of local British and Irish horses, from which female Thoroughbred lineages derive, as well as exotic eastern populations from which male Thoroughbred lineages derive. They also looked at DNA from close relatives to horses, for example donkeys and zebras, to find out whether the C-gene existed in these equid species or was unique to horses. Zebras were of particular interest since they indicated which variant of the speed gene was present in wild equids, something that is impossible to study in horses since the wild ancestors of our domestic horses, including thoroughbreds, are long extinct.</p>&#13; <p>“What’s fascinating is that the study revealed that the Shetland breed – the sturdy little pony immortalised by the Thelwell cartoons – has the highest frequency of the C-type gene variant among the horses whose DNA we screened.  ֱ̽Shetland represents just one of many local British horse types, which, according to historical sources, were highly prized for their racing ability before the Thoroughbred line was formally established. We’re not suggesting that Shetlands were speedy in themselves but rather that their genes have made a key contribution to the thoroughbred line,” said Dr Bower.</p>&#13; <p>“By comparing the diversity of chromosomes around the C and T type variants of the myostatin gene in horses, we found only a single C-type compared with 11 different T-type gene variants, meaning that the speed gene entered the Thoroughbred line just once. This is remarkable because it illustrates the genetic consequences of selection in action. Thanks to the science of genomics we can see the C-gene enter the Thoroughbred gene pool, and then, with the help of historic pedigree records and ancient DNA, we can watch its spread through the thoroughbred gene pool in 300 years of breeding.”</p>&#13; <p>Since prehistory humans and other animals have been shaping each other and the environment. Dr Bower added: “ ֱ̽most recent project shows how quickly human selection can affect a population of animals. In less than 300 years, a new and extremely rare version of an essential gene becomes frequent in a group of horses that are closely managed by human social and cultural choices. We will never know the precise identity of the mare which introduced the C-type variant but the project has shown us that the British native breeds which formed the backbone of the thoroughbred line, and which have been so under-valued historically, were, in important ways, responsible for the outstanding racing ability that has made the thoroughbred so famous.”</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽research was supported by grants from ֱ̽Horserace Betting Levy Board, Leverhulme Trust, Cambridge Overseas Trust and Science Foundation Ireland.</p>&#13; <p> </p>&#13; <p> </p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Research by a team of scientists suggests that a variant of the so-called speed gene found in top racehorses can be traced back to a single British mare living around 300 years ago. That mare may have had a similar genetic make-up to today's sturdy native ponies.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">What’s fascinating is that the study revealed that the Shetland breed – the sturdy little pony immortalised by the Thelwell cartoons – has the highest frequency of the C-type gene variant among the horses whose DNA we screened.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dr Mim Bower</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Trevor Jones, Thoroughbred Photography</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Parish Hall on right (a champion with Northern Dancer ancestry on both sides) wins the Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October 2011 for Jim Bolger</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/80x15.png" style="width: 80px; height: 15px;" /></a></p>&#13; <p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/events/">McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/events/">McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research</a></div></div></div> Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:45:45 +0000 amb206 26552 at