Tracing the genetic origin of mane growth in domestic horses: an innovative model to identify genetic factors that regulate hair growth
Rastreando el origen genético del crecimiento de la melena en caballos domésticos: un modelo innovador para identificar factores genéticos que regulan el crecimiento del pelo
Principal investigator
Juan José Negro
Financial institution
Swedish Research Council
Fecha de inicio
Fecha de fin
Code
2016-04361
Department
Ecology and Evolution
Researchers
Lindgren, Gabriella (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Brief description
The mane of the horse, i.e., the hair that grows from the top of the neck and reaches from between the ears to the shoulder blades, is one of the most prominent body features of a most venerated domestic animal, the horse. Similar to human head hair, and contrary to the short stiff mane of extant wild equid species, the mane of the domestic horse grows practically indefinitely. There is no accepted explanation for the origin and function of a horse mane. We hypothesize that the origin of the horse mane is the result of artificial selection of hair growth mutants by people during domestication; therefore, the aim of this project is to identify these mutation/s. Within this project we will take advantage of the remarkable phenotypic variation among horses to search their entire genome for mutations that regulate hair growth using state-of-the-art genomics technologies (high-density array data, whole genome sequencing and advanced bioinformatics).