Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Perugia, 06126 Perugia, Italy.
Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Aug 9;14(8):1602. doi: 10.3390/genes14081602.
Horse domestication and breed selection processes have profoundly influenced the development and transformation of human society and civilization over time. Therefore, their origin and history have always attracted much attention. In Italy, several local breeds have won prestigious awards thanks to their unique traits and socio-cultural peculiarities. Here, for the first time, we report the genetic variation of three loci of the male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY) of four local breeds and another one (Lipizzan, UNESCO) well-represented in the Italian Peninsula. The analysis also includes data from three Sardinian breeds and another forty-eight Eurasian and Mediterranean horse breeds retrieved from GenBank for comparison. Three haplotypes (HT1, HT2, and HT3) were found in Italian stallions, with different spatial distributions between breeds. HT1 (the ancestral haplotype) was frequent, especially in Bardigiano and Monterufolino, HT2 (Neapolitan/Oriental wave) was found in almost all local breeds, and HT3 (Thoroughbred wave) was detected in Maremmano and two Sardinian breeds (Sardinian Anglo-Arab and Sarcidano). This differential distribution is due to three paternal introgressions of imported stallions from foreign countries to improve local herds; however, further genetic analyses are essential to reconstruct the genetic history of native horse breeds, evaluate the impact of selection events, and enable conservation strategies.
马的驯化和品种选育过程随着时间的推移深刻地影响了人类社会和文明的发展和变革。因此，它们的起源和历史一直备受关注。在意大利，由于其独特的特征和社会文化特点，几个本地品种赢得了享有盛誉的奖项。在这里，我们首次报告了四个本地品种和另一个在意大利半岛广泛存在的品种（利比扎马，联合国教科文组织）的雄性特异性区域 Y 染色体（MSY）的三个基因座的遗传变异。该分析还包括从 GenBank 中检索到的三个撒丁岛品种和另外四十八个欧亚和地中海马品种的数据，以进行比较。在意大利种马中发现了三种单倍型（HT1、HT2 和 HT3），它们在品种之间的空间分布不同。HT1（祖先单倍型）很常见，尤其是在 Bardigiano 和 Monterufolino 品种中，HT2（那不勒斯/东方波）几乎存在于所有本地品种中，HT3（纯血马波）则存在于 Maremmano 和两个撒丁岛品种（撒丁岛 Anglo-Arab 和 Sarcidano）中。这种差异分布是由于从国外进口的种马的三次父系渗入，以改善当地的畜群；然而，进一步的遗传分析对于重建本地马品种的遗传历史、评估选择事件的影响以及实施保护策略是必要的。
