title: The genetic origin and history of speed in the Thoroughbred racehorse.
abstract: Selective breeding for speed in the racehorse has resulted in an unusually high frequency of the C-variant (g.66493737C/T) at the myostatin gene (MSTN) in cohorts of the Thoroughbred horse population that are best suited to sprint racing. Here we show using a combination of molecular- and pedigree-based approaches in 593 horses from 22 Eurasian and North-American horse populations, museum specimens from 12 historically important Thoroughbred stallions (b.1764-1930), 330 elite-performing modern Thoroughbreds and 42 samples from three other equid species that the T-allele was ancestral and there was a single introduction of the C-allele at the foundation stages of the Thoroughbred from a British-native mare. Furthermore, we show that although the C-allele was rare among the celebrated racehorses of the 18th and 19th centuries, it has proliferated recently in the population via the stallion Nearctic (b.1954), the sire of the most influential stallion of modern time, Northern Dancer (b.1961).
authors.affiliation: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Mim A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bower
authors.forename: Beatrice A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: McGivney
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Campana
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Lisa S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Catherine R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mikko
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stock
authors.forename: Valery
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Voronkova
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Alan G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Fahey
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lindgren
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: MacHugh
authors.forename: Galina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sulimova
authors.forename: Emmeline W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006736:Horses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010375:Pedigree; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA