I found this great article on Yahoo. news today about where theThoroughbred horse got his speed and how it may hope find the genetics to diseases. Really cool. Thank you Mr Potter.
J
All Thoroughbreds Have Same Ancestor
By Ned Potter | ABC News – 8 hrs ago…
“The Bazzani Scully Brand Lawyers Handicap race, Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 26, 2012. Scott Barbour/Getty Images
All the great names in thoroughbred horse racing – from Secretariat to Man O’War, from Seabiscuit to Seattle Slew – they’re all related, and a team of geneticists has now traced their talent for speed back to a single ancestor. The “speed gene” that made them all so fast was apparently a genetic aberration, and it probably started with one British mare who lived in the mid-17th century.
Emmeline Hill of University College Dublin led a team that analyzed DNA in 593 horses from 22 modern breeds, as well as museum specimens from 12 historically famous stallions. Modern genetics have become sophisticated enough that they could tell, with considerable precision, what the horses had in common.
“The results show that the ‘speed gene’ entered the thoroughbred from a single founder, which was most likely a British mare about 300 years ago when local British horse types were the pre-eminent racing horses, prior to the formal foundation of the thoroughbred racehorse,” said Hill in a prepared statement.
She and her colleagues published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
Lest this seem like some arcane animal study, it does involve a big-money sport and, more important, questions about how genetic characteristics can be inherited and traced. If you can decipher the genes that make thoroughbreds so fast, say the researchers, you can also find clues to genetic diseases in people. Thoroughbred horses are useful for study because the records of their ancestry are – forgive the pun – really, really thorough, going back centuries.
The great speed horses all shared two genes associated with muscle development. The combination did not show up in regular farm horses, or donkeys, or zebras.
Horses with the two genes were consistently top sprinters. It’s no accident that the Kentucky Derby is a mile and a quarter, usually won in just more than two minutes. Other genetic combinations were found in horses that were slower but able to run longer.
Place your bets.
There’s been a bit of discussion about this over here, where it was reported in a slightly different way. They reckon the mare could have been a Galloway, a breed/type now extinct, but like a Fell pony. Whether the gene was a mutation or not is a moot point. I blame the Spanish Armada!
I’ll go with the Spanish Armada. And that does enter a question of the Arab’s speed too. Did the Romans bring them over when they passed through because it seems Arab blood and the thoroughbred is the foundation stock of the American Saddlebred. hummmm
This is SO fascinating, Judy. How did I miss this?? What a great find! A Thoroughbred “Eve!”
Hee hee. Hadn’t thought of that. But YES. EVE!!! And for it to possibly help research for people too. Nice.
‘Eve’ was a Shetland pony according to the research.
http://www.physorg.com/pdf246627374.pdf
The speed gene entered bloodlines when the Darley and Godolphin Arabians and Byerley Turk were bred with British native ponies.
You are so right about the benefits the Darly and The Arabians were to today’s horses. But I bet for a Shetland, Eve was fast too.
Fascinating! But totally believable.
What a neat blog!
Thank Jim, What also amazes me is that horses roamed the US long before the iceage which did them in. Tiny little creatures I guess