title: The legacy of Columbus in American horse populations assessed by microsatellite markers.
abstract: Criollo horse populations descend from horses brought from the Iberian Peninsula over the period of colonization (15th to 17th century). They are spread throughout the Americas and have potentially undergone genetic hybridization with other breeds in the recent past. In this study, 25 autosomal microsatellites were genotyped in 50 horse breeds representing Criollo populations from 12 American countries (27 breeds), breeds from the Iberian Peninsula (19), one breed each from France and Morocco and two cosmopolitan horse breeds (Thoroughbred and Arabian). The genetic relationships among breeds identified five clusters: Celtic; Iberian; North American with Thoroughbred influence; most Colombian breeds; and nearly all other Criollo breeds. The group of "all other Criollo breeds" had the closest genetic relationship with breeds originating from the Iberian Peninsula, specifically with the Celtic group. For the whole set of Criollo breeds analysed, the estimated genetic contribution from other breeds was approximately 50%, 30% and 20% for the Celtic, Iberian and Arab-Thoroughbred groups, respectively. The spatial distribution of genetic diversity indicates that hotspots of genetic diversity are observed in populations from Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay and western United States, possibly indicating points of arrival and dispersion of Criollo horses in the American continent. These results indicate that Criollo breeds share a common ancestry, but that each breed has its own identity.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: O
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7685-3980
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cortés
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dunner
authors.affiliation: CIISA, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: L T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Gama
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: J V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO-InBIO), Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ginja
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Animal, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y de Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá, Bogota, Columbia.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencia Animal y de los Alimentos, Facultad de Veterinaria, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jordana
authors.affiliation: Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia (CIUHCT), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.|Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (MUHNAC), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.|CIES-UL, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luis
authors.affiliation: cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Oom
authors.affiliation: Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Sponenberg
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Genética Bioquímica, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zaragoza
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Investigación Aplicada, Crıa Caballar de las Fuerzas Armadas, Cordoba, Spain.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vega-Pla
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006736:Horses / Q000235:genetics*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010802:Phylogeny; D014481:United States
keywords: criollo breeds; genetic relationships; genetic variability; microsatellite markers