Project description:The Y chromosome carries information about the demography of paternal lineages, and thus, can prove invaluable for retracing both the evolutionary trajectory of wild animals and the breeding history of domesticates. In horses, the Y chromosome shows a limited, but highly informative, sequence diversity, supporting the increasing breeding influence of Oriental lineages during the last 1500 years. Here, we augment the primary horse Y-phylogeny, which is currently mainly based on modern horse breeds of economic interest, with haplotypes (HT) segregating in remote horse populations around the world. We analyze target enriched sequencing data of 5 Mb of the Y chromosome from 76 domestic males, together with 89 whole genome sequenced domestic males and five Przewalski's horses from previous studies. The resulting phylogeny comprises 153 HTs defined by 2966 variants and offers unprecedented resolution into the history of horse paternal lineages. It reveals the presence of a remarkable number of previously unknown haplogroups in Mongolian horses and insular populations. Phylogenetic placement of HTs retrieved from 163 archaeological specimens further indicates that most of the present-day Y-chromosomal variation evolved after the domestication process that started around 4200 years ago in the Western Eurasian steppes. Our comprehensive phylogeny significantly reduces ascertainment bias and constitutes a robust evolutionary framework for analyzing horse population dynamics and diversity.
Project description:We undertook gene expression microarray experiments to identify genes that are differentially expressed in invasive (Chorionic Girdle) and non-invasive (Chorion) placental tissue, and resting and Pokeweed Mitogen (PWM) stimulated horse lymphocytes. Conceptus tissues were dissected to obtain chorionic girdle, and chorion. Freshly isolated horse peripheral blood lymphocytes were split and harvested immediately, or stimulated with PWM and harvested over a five day period. These experiments utilized a commercially available Agilent horse array that featured >43,000 probes on a 4x44k array format.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE35741: Gene expression variation in horse placental and fetal tissue, and resting and stimulated horse lymphocytes [Agilent-018932] GSE35742: Gene expression variation in horse placental tissue, and resting and stimulated horse lymphocytes [Agilent-021322] Refer to individual Series
Project description:In eutherian mammals, dosage compensation of X-linked genes is achieved by X chromosome inactivation. X inactivation is random in embryonic and adult tissues, but imprinted X inactivation (paternal X silencing) has been identified in the extraembryonic membranes of the mouse, rat, and cow. Few other species have been studied for this trait, and the data from studies of the human placenta have been discordant or inconclusive. Here, we quantify X inactivation using RNA sequencing of placental tissue from reciprocal hybrids of horse and donkey (mule and hinny). In placental tissue from the equid hybrids and the horse parent the allelic expression pattern was consistent with random X inactivation, and imprinted X inactivation can clearly be excluded. We characterized horse and donkey XIST gene, and demonstrated that XIST allelic expression in female hybrid placental and fetal tissues is negatively correlated with the other X-linked genes chromosome-wide, which is consistent with the XIST-mediated mechanism of X inactivation discovered previously in mice. As the most structurally and morphologically diverse organ in mammals, the placenta also appears to show diverse mechanisms for dosage compensation that may result in differences in conceptus development across species.
Project description:We undertook gene expression microarray experiments to identify genes that are differentially expressed in different placental and fetal tissue, and resting and Pokeweed Mitogen (PWM) stimulated horse lymphocytes. Conceptus tissues were dissected to obtain chorionic girdle, chorion, and fetal tissue. Freshly isolated horse peripheral blood lymphocytes were split and harvested immediately, or stimulated with PWM and harvested over a five day period. These experiments utilized a custom Agilent horse array designed in house that featured >14,000 probes on an 8x15k array format. Several genes were selected from the results for validation by quantitative real-time PCR. QPCR results matched the microarray results very closely.