12 November 2010

New Breakthrough Research Developments at Equinome

Equinome today announced the publication of three scientific papers by Equinome and University College Dublin researchers in Animal Genetics and the Equine Veterinary Journal which describe significant advances in the understanding of the genes that contribute to athletic performance in Thoroughbred horses.

The first paper provides the first scientific evidence for associations between genetic variants in nuclear-encoded genes and athletic ability, including variants in the PDK4 gene that were strongly associated with elite racing performance in Thoroughbreds.

Another study examined the role of molecular signalling pathways in the physical response of skeletal muscle under various levels of activity, which demonstrated that specific sets of genes are central to performance in horses racing at different distances that entail different physiological and metabolic demands.

The third paper examined important metabolic genes for associations with racecourse performance in Thoroughbreds. This study identified an important role for one of these genes in racecourse performance and highlighted the requirement for rigorous statistical validation of newly discovered genetic markers in the Thoroughbred population.

According to Dr Emmeline Hill, co-founder and Chairman of Equinome, "The ongoing, rapid developments in genomics technology are facilitating the identification of the key genetic variants that contribute to the athletic phenotype. Our new findings will be central to the development of future tests for elite performance ability, which we plan to launch in 2011."

The three papers described are listed below and are available to view at: http://www.equinome.com/pages/scientific-publications.html

• 'Targets of selection in the Thoroughbred genome contain exercise-relevant gene SNPs associated with elite racecourse performance.' Animal Genetics (2010) 41, 56-63.
• 'Association of sequence variants in CKM (creatine kinase, muscle) and COX4I2 (cytochrome c oxidase, subunit 4, isoform 2) genes with racing performance in Thoroughbred horses.' Equine Veterinary Journal (2010) 42, 569-75.
• 'Moderate and high intensity sprint exercise induce differential responses in COX4I2 and PDK4 gene expression in Thoroughbred horse skeletal muscle.' Equine Veterinary Journal (2010) 42, 576-81.