Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

The Second Generation Whole Genome Radiation Hybrid (RH) And Comparative Map Of The Horse

LOREN SKOW¹ , TERJE RAUDSEPP¹ , GLENDA GOH¹ , EUN-JOON LEE¹ , CANDICE BRINKMEYER¹ , ASHLEY GUSTAFSON-SEABURY¹ , MICHELLE WAGNER² , HIROSHI YASUE³ , TERUAKI TOZAKI⁴ , CECILIA PENEDO⁵ , LESLIE LYONS⁵ , AMY YOUNG⁵ , TOSSO LEEB⁶ , DAVID ADELSON¹ , JAMES WOMACK¹ , JAMES MICKELSON² , BHANU CHOWDHARY¹

¹  Texas A & M Univ., USA

²  Univ. of Minnesota, USA

³  Natl. Inst. of Agrobiological Sci.,Inashiki-gun, Japan

⁴  Lab. of Racing Chemistry, Utsunomiya, Japan

⁵  UC Davis, USA

⁶  TiHo Hannover, Germany

The first generation RH and comparative map of the equine genome comprising 730 markers and average markers density of one marker/4 Mb was reported in 2003. Concerted efforts have since been made to generate the second generation map with focus on regions deficient with mapped markers. Our current aim is to produce a 1 Mb resolution physical map with markers evenly distributed over the whole equine genome. To achieve this goal a combination of strategies are being used to obtain markers to type our 5000rad horse x hamster RH panel. These include designing of primers from our horse skeletal muscle cDNA library, conserved gene sequences from various mammals, BAC end sequences obtained from BACs isolated following overgo hybridization, screening of microsatellites from BACs, etc. Of the total ~3000 markers typed to date (2000 new with 100 FISH mapped), ~1100 are specific genes. High resolution maps for fourteen horse chromosomes have been completed and several more are in progress. Maps for selected chromosomes will be presented and discussed. The findings increase the number of mapped markers by at least 5-folds, thus refining and expanding the comparative status of the map between horse and the species with finished or ’in-progress’ sequence maps (human, mouse, rat, cattle, pig, chicken, fugu and zebrafish). The results bring us a step closer to the main goal of identifying genes governing traits of significance in the horse.