Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters
Introduction: In horse breeding, athletic skills have been in focus and certain behaviour types have been found to be important for competition. Behaviour is heritable but is also affected by the environment. Just like humans, animals have their own personality and behaviour-traits. The hair whor...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Formato: | H3 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics (until 231231)
2022
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855572930198503424 |
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| author | Saxe, Victoria |
| author_browse | Saxe, Victoria |
| author_facet | Saxe, Victoria |
| author_sort | Saxe, Victoria |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Introduction: In horse breeding, athletic skills have been in focus and certain behaviour types have
been found to be important for competition. Behaviour is heritable but is also affected by the
environment. Just like humans, animals have their own personality and behaviour-traits.
The hair whorls in the equine forehead and their potential meaning have been discussed by people
practising horsemanship. They are believed to tell us things about the horse’s behaviour and
personality. The hair whorls are thought to take form when the skin on the foetus expands during
growth in the uterus. At a certain timepoint during development, the hair follicles get set in their
angle that gives the hair its direction to grow. But exactly how the hair whorls get their specific
appearance and what position they get is unclear. Since both brain and skin cells originate from the
ectoderm, there are theories that the brain can be mirrored by the overlying skin.
The aim of this study was to investigate if there is an association between facial hair whorls and
behaviour as well as finding regions of interest for the hair whorl types in the horses’ DNA.
Material and method: The behaviour data to be analysed in this study had already been collected
through a survey in another project about genetics and behaviour. The behaviour traits analysed
were nervosity, excitability, fearfulness, concentration, learning, memory, cooperation, will to win,
stubbornness, self-control, recovery, appetite and stereotypic behaviour. In that survey the trainer
gave the horses scores between 1-7 depending on how often they saw the behaviour during
competition. Hair samples from the horses’ tails had also been collected.
This study analysed the association between the thirteen different behaviour traits from the survey
and nineteen different hair whorl types in 175 Standardbred trotters. Their DNA were extracted, and
their genome low pass sequenced and analysed. Their genomic information was run in a computer
program that compared the individuals in the different hair whorl groups.
The hair whorls were inspected live or from a photo, a protocol was filled out and a photo was taken
on the horses’ forehead. The horses were then divided into groups as low (1 and 1-2) and high (7
and 6-7) scores from the survey, and hair whorl groups that were classified as contraries. Statistical
association analyses were then performed between individuals that had extreme scores (1 against 7
and 1-2 against 6-7) in the behaviour traits according to the survey, and the differing hair whorl
groups. The association were analysed using two by two contingency tables.
The results of this study can indicate the following; if a facial hair whorl is located to the right (to
the left from a frontal view), the chance is bigger that it becomes nervous during competition in
comparison to a horse with a facial hair whorl to the left (p-value: 0,025). If a horse has more than
one facial hair whorl, it more often took longer for it to learn the task of competing (p-value: 0,03).
Comparing the horses that had a facial hair whorl looking like a feather, there was a greater chance
of the trotter to be focused and concentrated during competition if the feather went in a vertical
direction, compared to if it had a horizontal or diagonal direction (p-value: 0,05). If the feather was
vertical, they also had a higher chance of having good appetite after competition (p-value: 0,03).
On five chromosome regions, but one especially, there was found a highly significant difference
between horses with one hair whorl and horses with two hair whorls in the forehead. For future
investigations in this subject, these results can serve as an interesting basis about associations
between facial hair whorls, behaviour, and genetics of Standardbred trotters. |
| format | H3 |
| id | RepoSLU17647 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics (until 231231) |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics (until 231231) |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU176472022-04-02T01:02:02Z Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters Associationsanalyser av hårvirvlar i pannan, beteende och kromosomregioner hos varmblodstravare Saxe, Victoria behaviour temperament trait tricoglyph hair whorl swirl genetics horse Standardbred trotter genotype phenotype Introduction: In horse breeding, athletic skills have been in focus and certain behaviour types have been found to be important for competition. Behaviour is heritable but is also affected by the environment. Just like humans, animals have their own personality and behaviour-traits. The hair whorls in the equine forehead and their potential meaning have been discussed by people practising horsemanship. They are believed to tell us things about the horse’s behaviour and personality. The hair whorls are thought to take form when the skin on the foetus expands during growth in the uterus. At a certain timepoint during development, the hair follicles get set in their angle that gives the hair its direction to grow. But exactly how the hair whorls get their specific appearance and what position they get is unclear. Since both brain and skin cells originate from the ectoderm, there are theories that the brain can be mirrored by the overlying skin. The aim of this study was to investigate if there is an association between facial hair whorls and behaviour as well as finding regions of interest for the hair whorl types in the horses’ DNA. Material and method: The behaviour data to be analysed in this study had already been collected through a survey in another project about genetics and behaviour. The behaviour traits analysed were nervosity, excitability, fearfulness, concentration, learning, memory, cooperation, will to win, stubbornness, self-control, recovery, appetite and stereotypic behaviour. In that survey the trainer gave the horses scores between 1-7 depending on how often they saw the behaviour during competition. Hair samples from the horses’ tails had also been collected. This study analysed the association between the thirteen different behaviour traits from the survey and nineteen different hair whorl types in 175 Standardbred trotters. Their DNA were extracted, and their genome low pass sequenced and analysed. Their genomic information was run in a computer program that compared the individuals in the different hair whorl groups. The hair whorls were inspected live or from a photo, a protocol was filled out and a photo was taken on the horses’ forehead. The horses were then divided into groups as low (1 and 1-2) and high (7 and 6-7) scores from the survey, and hair whorl groups that were classified as contraries. Statistical association analyses were then performed between individuals that had extreme scores (1 against 7 and 1-2 against 6-7) in the behaviour traits according to the survey, and the differing hair whorl groups. The association were analysed using two by two contingency tables. The results of this study can indicate the following; if a facial hair whorl is located to the right (to the left from a frontal view), the chance is bigger that it becomes nervous during competition in comparison to a horse with a facial hair whorl to the left (p-value: 0,025). If a horse has more than one facial hair whorl, it more often took longer for it to learn the task of competing (p-value: 0,03). Comparing the horses that had a facial hair whorl looking like a feather, there was a greater chance of the trotter to be focused and concentrated during competition if the feather went in a vertical direction, compared to if it had a horizontal or diagonal direction (p-value: 0,05). If the feather was vertical, they also had a higher chance of having good appetite after competition (p-value: 0,03). On five chromosome regions, but one especially, there was found a highly significant difference between horses with one hair whorl and horses with two hair whorls in the forehead. For future investigations in this subject, these results can serve as an interesting basis about associations between facial hair whorls, behaviour, and genetics of Standardbred trotters. Introduktion: De atletiska egenskaperna har varit i fokus när det kommer till hästavel, men även betéende är viktigt för tävlingshästar. Beteende är genetiskt överförbart, men påverkas även av miljön. Precis som människor har djur olika personligheter och därav olika beteende-typer. Hårvirvlarna i hästens panna och deras eventuella betydelse har sedan länge diskuterats bland människor som lever och jobbar med hästar. Dessa hårvirvlar tros kunna antyda vilken sorts personlighet och beteenden en häst har. Hårvirvlarna tros bildas när huden på fostret stretchas ut under tillväxten i livmodern. Hårfolliklarna får då troligen en vinkel som ger upphov till åt vilket håll hårstrået växer. Men exakt varför virvlarna får det utseende de får, och vilken position de får, är oklart. Eftersom samma embryonala celler ger upphov till både hjärnan och skinnet, finns teorier om att hjärnan kan speglas av den överliggande huden. Studiens syfte var att undersöka om det finns någon association mellan hårvirveltypen i pannan och beteende hos häst, men även att hitta DNA-regioner av intresse för hårvirveltyp hos hästen. Material och metod: Beteendedata som analyserades i denna studie hade redan samlats in genom en enkät i ett tidigare projekt om genetik och beteende. Beteende-typerna som analyserades var nervositet, upphetsning, rädsla, koncentration, inlärning, minne, samarbete, vilja att vinna, envishet, självbehärskning, återhämtning, aptit och stereotypier. I denna enkät gav travtränaren hästen poäng mellan 1-7 beroende på hur ofta de såg betéendet under tävling. Hårprover från hästarnas svansrötter hade också samlats in i den tidigare studien. Denna studie analyserade eventuella samband mellan de tretton olika beteende-parametrarna och nitton olika hårvirvel-typer på 175 stycken varmblodstravare i Sverige och Norge. Hästarnas DNA extraherades på labb och sedan analyserades och gensekvenserades DNA:t. Deras genetiska information kördes därefter i ett dator-program som jämförde individerna i de olika hårvirvelgrupperna för att hitta eventuella genetiska faktorer av värde för dessa hårvirvel-typer. Hårvirvlarna inspekterades, ett protokoll fylldes i och ett foto togs på vardera hästpanna. Hästarna blev sedan indelade i grupper som låg (1 och 1-2) och hög (7 och 6-7) poäng-tagare från enkäten, och hårvirvelgrupper som klassificierades som motsatta varandra. Statistisk association beräknades med hjälp av frekvenstabeller, mellan individer som hade extrema beteende-poäng (1 mot 7 och 1-2 mot 6-7) och de motsatta hårvirvelgrupperna. Resultaten kan indikera följande: Om hårvirveln är till höger i pannan (vänster framifrån sett) är sannolikheten större att hästen blir nervös under tävling, till skillnad från en häst med en virvel till vänster i pannan (p-värde: 0,025). Om en häst har fler än en virvlel i pannan, så tar det längre tid för den att lära sig uppgiften att tävla (p-värde: 0,03). Vid jämförelse av de hästar som hade en hårvirvel som ser ut som en fjäder, var det mer sannolikt att hästen skulle vara fokuserad under tävling om fjädern gick vertikalt i pannan jämfört med om den gick horisontellt eller diagonalt (p-värde: 0,05). Om fjädern gick i vertikal riktning var det också större chans att de skulle ha bra aptit efter tävling (p-värde: 0,03). På fem men speciellt en kromosom hittades en region av hög signifikans för skillnad mellan hästar som hade en virvel i pannan jämfört med hästar som hade två virvlar i pannan. För framtida undersökningar i detta område kan dessa resultat ge intressant grund och indikationer på associationer mellan hårvirvel, beteende och genetik hos varmblodstravaren. SLU/Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics (until 231231) 2022 H3 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/17647/ |
| spellingShingle | behaviour temperament trait tricoglyph hair whorl swirl genetics horse Standardbred trotter genotype phenotype Saxe, Victoria Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters |
| title | Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters |
| title_full | Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters |
| title_fullStr | Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters |
| title_full_unstemmed | Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters |
| title_short | Association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in Standardbred Trotters |
| title_sort | association analyses of forehead hair whorls, behaviour, and chromosome regions in standardbred trotters |
| topic | behaviour temperament trait tricoglyph hair whorl swirl genetics horse Standardbred trotter genotype phenotype |