What is it about?
Horses had a vital role in human history, aiding travel, trade, and cultural development. Domesticated around 4,000 years ago on the Western Eurasian steppes, migratory events, diverse breeding goals, and intensive stallion centered practices have shaped a complex ancestry of modern horse. The Y chromosome, inherited through males, provides insight into stallion origins and their historical influence. By analyzing a large dataset and a wide range of modern horse breeds, we traced the ancestry of modern horses over the past 1,500 years and revealed how "Oriental" stallions from regions like the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Asian steppes spread globally. We identified two key historical routes of Oriental horse expansion and highlight the impact of intensive breeding. With this research, we correlated genetic ancestries with historic narrative on modern horse breeds and developed a unique approach to trace ancestry of any horse breed of interest.
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Why is it important?
While genetic inheritance is a well-established method for tracing ancestries, previous studies have primarily focused on maternal mitochondrial DNA, leaving the paternally inherited Y chromosome less understood and providing an incomplete view of horse history. Due to strong male oriented demography in horses, the Y chromosomal variation across different horse breeds and populations is crucial to depict gene flow at certain time points. Our research deciphered the worldwide influence of Oriental stallions and completed the paternal view on modern horse breeds.
Perspectives
“The history of the horse is complex and multilayered. In addition to migrations resulting from human conquests, trade routes, and colonization; strong male-centered breeding practices were established in horses. Breeding goals were constantly adjusted to align with what was fashionable at certain time points. Because of this, it was extremely difficult to differentiate the influences that shaped modern horse breeds. Fortunately, finescaled Y chromosome lineage analysis enabled us to connect the dots and genetically trace the paternal ancestry of horse breeds in detail as never before.” Radovic Lara
Lara Radovic
Veterinarplatz 1,1210 Vienna
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The global spread of Oriental Horses in the past 1,500 years through the lens of the Y chromosome, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2414408121.
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