Story Summary: Also collaborating on the project from UC Davis were James Murray, a professor of animal science who has worked with the Horse Genome Project since its inception in 1995, and Stephanie Pedroni, then a UC Davis staff researcher and genetics graduate student Having access to multiple genome sequences makes it easier to understand all genomes, including our own, Murray said. Because horses share these conditions, which include infertility, inflammatory diseases and muscle disorders, the horse is an important model for improving the understanding of human diseases. This indicates that fewer chromosome rearrangements separate humans from horses than separate humans from dogs. The researchers were also surprised to find on horse chromosome 11 the existence of an evolutionarily new centromere. The functional but evolutionarily immature centromere in the horse may provide a model to study factors responsible for how centromeres function. Penedo noted that the completion of the high-quality horse genome sequence has provided researchers around the world with ready access to specific gene sequences that can be applied to mapping various traits of the horse. She and genetics graduate student Leah Brault are using this information in their research focused on identifying the cause of equine cerebellar abiotrophy, a genetic, neurological condition found almost exclusively in Arabian horses….Read the Full Story

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