Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 34, Al Khod, Muscat, 123, Oman.
Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
Anim Genet. 2021 Jun;52(3):304-310. doi: 10.1111/age.13056. Epub 2021 Mar 17.
Arabian horses were selected for metabolic efficiency, beauty, efficiency and endurance. Therefore, Bedouins have for centuries traced their prized horses' ancestries. With the establishment of the World Arabian Horse Organization (WAHO), registration of Arabian horses became centralized and countries worldwide registered them in its database. Most existing Arabian horses in Oman today were imported after the 1970s and are predominantly flat-racing Arabians. This work aimed at revealing the genetic background and diversity of Omani Arabian horses by comparing them with Arabian horses from a diverse genetic background. To that end, we genotyped 63 randomly sampled Arabian horses from Oman using the Illumina Equine SNP70. For comparison, SNP genotypes of 12 Saudi Arabian horses, 27 French, 77 Egyptian, 11 Polish and 36 US Arabians were included in the study. We additionally included 17 Thoroughbred horses and 21 horses representing large and small breeds as an outgroup. Our MDS analysis and phylogenetic analysis showed that the Arabian horses in Oman cluster primarily with French Arabian horses, with a few horses clustering within the Polish/US Arabians. The French Arabian horse cluster was the closest to the Thoroughbred horses. Amongst the Arabian horses, plink average genomic inbreeding levels were highest in the Egyptian Arabian (0.169) followed by the Saudi Arabian horses (0.137) and lowest in the Omani and French Arabian horses, -0.041 and -0.079 respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the genetic background and diversity of Arabian horses in Oman. Our results demonstrated a definite subpopulation structure among Arabian horses and this information should advise future decision-making on Arabian horse breeding.
阿拉伯马因其新陈代谢效率高、外形美观、工作效率高和耐力持久而被选育。因此，几个世纪以来，贝都因人一直在追踪他们珍贵马匹的血统。随着世界阿拉伯马组织（WAHO）的成立，阿拉伯马的注册变得集中化，世界各地的国家都在其数据库中注册了阿拉伯马。如今，阿曼现存的大多数阿拉伯马都是 20 世纪 70 年代以后进口的，主要是平跑阿拉伯马。本研究旨在通过与来自不同遗传背景的阿拉伯马进行比较，揭示阿曼阿拉伯马的遗传背景和多样性。为此，我们使用 Illumina Equine SNP70 对 63 匹随机抽取的阿曼阿拉伯马进行了基因分型。为了进行比较，我们还纳入了 12 匹沙特阿拉伯马、27 匹法国马、77 匹埃及马、11 匹波兰马和 36 匹美国阿拉伯马的 SNP 基因型。我们还额外纳入了 17 匹纯血马和 21 匹代表大、小品种的马作为外群。我们的 MDS 分析和系统发育分析表明，阿曼的阿拉伯马主要与法国阿拉伯马聚在一起，少数马与波兰/美国阿拉伯马聚在一起。法国阿拉伯马聚在一起与纯血马最接近。在阿拉伯马中，plink 平均基因组近交水平最高的是埃及阿拉伯马（0.169），其次是沙特阿拉伯马（0.137），最低的是阿曼和法国阿拉伯马，分别为-0.041 和-0.079。据我们所知，这是首次报道阿曼阿拉伯马的遗传背景和多样性。我们的结果表明，阿拉伯马存在明确的亚群结构，这些信息应该为未来的阿拉伯马育种决策提供参考。
